OIP-u:TU Presents Guest Speaker

On November 16, 2022, Tiffin University’s undergraduate student chapter of the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP-u:TU) will host guest speaker, Robert McClendon at 7 p.m. in the Osceola Theater. McClendon was wrongfully charged and convicted of kidnapping and raping his 10-year-old daughter and spent 17 years in prison for crimes he did not commit.

McClendon steadfastly maintained his innocence, but the courts denied him the right to a DNA test three different times. The Ohio Innocence Project got involved after working closely with reporters from the Columbus Dispatch in 2007 and 2008 to evaluate cases where the defendant was wrongfully convicted and denied DNA testing. He was freed on August 12, 2008 when an Ohio lab conducted a DNA test that definitively proved McClendon’s innocence.

McClendon’s story is about failures of the criminal justice system, the power of investigative journalism and continued racial discrimination that he faced after his release from prison.