Foundation Appeals for Darius Elam's Exoneration
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Sentenced to life in prison for aggravated robbery, Darius Durom Elam has never taken a plea deal and continues to maintain his innocence. He is serving a life sentence and has been enslaved to the Department of Correction for 37 years – with not physical evidence linking him to the case.
At the time of Darius’ incarceration, he was married with newborn twins along with another child. He had relocated from Chicago, Illinois to Houston attending TSU on a track scholarship with no record of violence or criminal past.
Darius’ conviction was based around untrustworthy jailed informants’ testimonies, and a reported fingerprint on a sheet of paper that was not initially included in the original evidence log and was reportedly found by an investigator 3 months after the original evidences were logged.
According to statistics gathered by the Innocence Project, a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating and freeing wrongly convicted people, between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners in America are actually innocent. Research done by the organization also shows that largely unregulated jailhouse informants’ testimonies like the ones utilized in Darius’ case are the leading reason for many innocent people who are wrongly imprisoned.
When Darius requested DNA post-conviction testing, the Houston Police Department (HPD) reported that it destroyed the questionable sheet of paper with Darius’ fingerprint in 1995. In addition to this sheet not being logged with the initial evidences, the HPD only destroyed the sheet of paper that was a major factor in Darius’ conviction. HPD maintained the original evidences: a bullet, shoes, clothing, fingernail clippings, hair, and blood samples.
In 2014, post-conviction DNA testing dismissed Elam as a DNA contributor to these remaining items, which means no physical evidence links Elam to this crime.
The wheels of justice stalled for Darius in Judge Joshua Hill’s 232nd District Court of Harris County. Darius’ writ hearing seeking the court’s recommendation to drop the charges based on 2014 post-conviction DNA testing that dismissed Elam as a DNA contributor, was held on July 12, 2019.
Darius Elam's Writ was remanded to Judge Hill's Court on 4/3/19 and the Court was scheduled to issue its decision on Dec. 2, 2019, the deadline set by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Yet, over a year after the hearing, no recommendation has been rendered.
On July 16, 2020, the Criminal Court of Appeals reminded Judge Joshua Hill in the 232nd District Court of Harris County that he had passed the deadline to issue a recommendation and that he had not requested an extension. Now, the Higher Court-Criminal Court of Appeals is requiring Judge Hill, 232nd District Court, to issue his recommendation or request an extension.
With God at the head, the Honey Brown Hope Foundation along with it's Founder Tammie Lang Campbell are not alone in advocating for Darius.
Support Team
Founder Tammie Lang Campbell was visiting the prison at the request of Jim Arnold who has a program similar to Toast Masters in prison called, Skills for Life. It is designed to reduce recidivism. He requested her to give him feedback about his program after reading her editorial about the school-to-prison pipeline.
In addition to visiting the prison at the request of Jim, she was also visiting as a class assignment for my American Leadership Forum (ALF) class and as the chair of Fort Bend District Attorney Brian Middleton to gather anecdotal evidence about recidivism.
During the visit, one of the inmates pointed to Darius and said, “You see that man over there – he is innocent.”
When Campbell spoke to Darius for a brief moment, he gave an impassioned plea, “Mrs. Campbell, I would greatly appreciate anything you can do to help me prove my innocence.” I told him, “Consider it done.”
Since that day last year, the Foundation has been exposing his wrongful conviction and advocating not only for his release, but also justice.”