Personal Journeys: The Exonerated

Metro Atlanta

Photos: Personal Journeys: The Exonerated

After 17 years of false imprisonment. Clarence Harrison was released thanks to the Georgia Innocence Project. But freedom hasn't been easy.

This week's personal Journey is about Clarence Harrison, an innocent man who spent nearly 18 years in prison before he was finally exonerated by DNA evidence. Since he's been free, Harrison has devoted his life to supporting the organization that helped clear his name, the Georgia Innocence Project. He is with his wife Yvonne in this photo. Yvonne and Clarence met by chance one day when a fellow inmate handed him the phone and she was on the line. She soon started sending Clarence bible verses and when she asked why he was imprisoned, he started sending her his court transcripts. Yvonne told him that he needed a lawyer and she got a third job to pay for it. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Aimee Maxwell is the Executive Director of the Georgia Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals who have been convicted of crimes they did not commit. Maxwell went to law school the year Harrison went to prison. Maxwell was a painfully shy but when she found her voice in law, she realized that she could speak up when advocating for someone else. She initially took at $20,000 pay cut to become the director of the Georgia Innocence Project and set up an office in her home with one employee. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Clarence makes his first walk of freedom here in 2004 out of the Dekalb County Courthouse with his fiance Yvonne Zellars (left). AJC FILE

Clarence and Yvonne took their vows at Straight Life Church of God Pentecostal less than three weeks after his release from prison. More than 200 people filled the pews and the couple's attendants stretched across the front of the sanctuary. Aimee was a bridesmaid. One of her interns was a groomsman. (Renee' Hannans Henry/AJC staff)

Clarence at noon prayer at his church Immanuel Church of God in Christ in Canton in 2005. Re-entry into society proved more complicated for Clarence. He was petrified to drive and didn't leave the house without an alibi. When he felt anxious, he retreated to the smallest room in the house. He grew dependent on Aimee, the lawyer who freed him, turning to her for everything. He was reeling from an overwhelming sense of lose and he confided in Aimee. Eventually, Clarence began taking care of more things himself and his friendship with Aimee grew. (RENEE' HANNANS HENRY/AJC staff)

Clarence got a job as a security guard at Mt. Paran Christian School in 2006. (ANDY SHARP/AJC staff)

In 2007, Georgia's four recent exonerees gather outside the Fulton Country courthouse after Willie O. Williams cq (right), the most recent person to be cleared of a crime, appeared before Judge Thomas Campbell to legally finalized his case. The four men represent 78 years of false imprisonment in Georgia. From left to right: Clarence Harrison cq, 17 years; Robert Clark cq, 24 years; Calvin C. Johnson, Jr., 16 years; and Williams, 21 years. (RICH ADDICKS / AJC STAFF)

Clarence is greeted by Aimee as Melanie Hammet looks on after a rehearsal of his autobiographical collaboration with musicians Melanie Hammet and Ben Holst, which will benefit Georgia Innocence Project, at music director Gayanne Geurin's home in Pine Lake. Melanie first came to the center after returning from New York and seeing a play called "The Exonerated". It is about death-row inmates. Compelled to help, she practically begged to volunteer for the organization. One day she got the idea to write songs about being wrongly imprisoned. The trio, Melanie, Clarence and Ben, are now working on a documentary-style CD about Clarence's life called "Life sentence". HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Clarence shares a laugh with Aimee after a rehearsal of his autobiographical collaboration with musicians Melanie Hammet and Ben Holst, which will benefit Georgia Innocence Project, at music director Gayanne Geurin's home in Pine Lake. For so long, no one listened to Clarence. But one day Yvonne did, and then so did Aimee. Now Melanie is helping to tell his stories through music. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Clarence Harrison kisses his wife, Yvonne, in a photo taken several years after his release. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

Clarence and Yvonne Harrison share a laugh as they look their wedding photographs together at their home in Marietta. "She put the light back in me," he says. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

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This week's personal Journey is about Clarence Harrison, an innocent man who spent nearly 18 years in prison before he was finally exonerated by DNA evidence. Since he's been free, Harrison has devoted his life to supporting the organization that helped clear his name, the Georgia Innocence Project. He is with his wife Yvonne in this photo. Yvonne and Clarence met by chance one day when a fellow inmate handed him the phone and she was on the line. She soon started sending Clarence bible verses and when she asked why he was imprisoned, he started sending her his court transcripts. Yvonne told him that he needed a lawyer and she got a third job to pay for it. HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM

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