00:00:05
And then what are you going to do?
00:00:06
>> On the morning of February 20th, 1989,
00:00:09
something terrible happened to Janice
00:00:12
Johnson, a 35-year-old housewife and
00:00:15
mother of two children.
00:00:16
>> Uh, Claire, I got to go. I'll talk to
00:00:18
you later. Okay.
00:00:20
[Music]
00:00:34
The investigation into that morning's
00:00:36
events would raise questions that
00:00:39
persist to this day.
00:00:42
[Music]
00:01:07
Clayton and Janice Johnson lived in the
00:01:10
tiny coastal fishing village of Shelurn,
00:01:12
Nova Scotia.
00:01:14
It's a close-knit community where town's
00:01:16
people all know one another. For the
00:01:19
Johnson's, Shelburn was the ideal place
00:01:22
to raise their two young daughters,
00:01:24
11-year-old Darla and 9-year-old Dawn.
00:01:28
>> We had two lovely girls and you know,
00:01:29
perfect as far as I was concerned. We
00:01:31
were always together. Like even ask
00:01:32
anybody around the community whenever
00:01:33
they seen us, we were the four of us
00:01:35
were usually always together. Very, very
00:01:37
rarely we ever went anywhere
00:01:38
individually.
00:01:40
Clayton was an industrial arts teacher
00:01:42
at the local high school. Janice was a
00:01:44
homemaker. The Johnson's were a deeply
00:01:47
religious family and very active in
00:01:49
their church, volunteering much of their
00:01:51
free time to church activities.
00:01:54
>> We were always out visiting people and
00:01:56
doing this and that. My mom was the type
00:01:58
of person that she didn't like to just
00:02:01
sit around and do nothing, so we were
00:02:02
always busy doing something. Um,
00:02:08
and like we never went anywhere without
00:02:11
doing it as a family.
00:02:16
>> The morning of February 20th, 1989 was a
00:02:19
typical one for the Johnson family.
00:02:22
After the children left for school,
00:02:25
Clayton carried some laundry to the
00:02:27
basement for his wife.
00:02:29
>> All right. Very good.
00:02:30
>> Moments later, the telephone rang.
00:02:32
Clayton answered on the basement
00:02:34
extension.
00:02:35
>> Sure. Just right here.
00:02:36
>> Okay, great. Thanks.
00:02:38
>> Hi.
00:02:38
>> It was Claire Thompson, our next door
00:02:40
neighbor.
00:02:40
>> Throw on a load of laundry.
00:02:41
>> She wanted to answer. She took the
00:02:43
phone.
00:02:43
>> What?
00:02:44
>> And I went out and got my coat and come
00:02:46
back in and told her I was going to give
00:02:47
her a kiss goodbye and I left.
00:02:50
>> Really? Do you think your husband's got
00:02:52
a mind?
00:02:52
>> We got to go.
00:02:53
>> Oh, okay. Bye. See you later.
00:02:54
>> See you tonight.
00:02:55
>> Mhm.
00:02:56
>> Okay. Yeah.
00:02:59
Clayton then left for work, stopping
00:03:01
along the way at a local gas station.
00:03:11
>> Janice
00:03:15
Janice.
00:03:17
A few minutes later, a neighbor stopped
00:03:19
by the Johnson's home.
00:03:25
He discovered Janice at the bottom of
00:03:27
the stairs. She was bloody and
00:03:30
unconscious, but still alive.
00:03:33
Clayton heard the news when he arrived
00:03:36
at work and rushed to the hospital.
00:03:40
>> When I first seen her, I I didn't
00:03:41
recognize her because of like all the
00:03:42
tubes and and the swelling. So, and I'd
00:03:45
look almost twice to realize it was her.
00:03:47
And
00:03:49
it's just one of those things that you
00:03:51
don't want to see every day.
00:03:54
Janice had sustained severe head
00:03:56
injuries from what was assumed to be an
00:03:59
accidental fall down the basement steps.
00:04:03
Despite the best of medical treatment,
00:04:05
Janice died of her head wound several
00:04:08
hours later. She was just 35 years old.
00:04:12
>> I think it was the first time I ever
00:04:14
seen my father cry.
00:04:17
My first reaction was that it wasn't it
00:04:20
wasn't real. like you want to believe it
00:04:23
didn't happen.
00:04:26
>> That's one of the hardest things I've
00:04:27
ever done in my life is to tell the two
00:04:28
girls that their mother passed away.
00:04:32
>> The small community of Shelurn rallied
00:04:35
around Clayton Johnson and his two
00:04:37
daughters as they paid their last
00:04:39
respects to a loving wife and mother.
00:04:42
But that support soon crumbled when
00:04:46
Clayton Johnson started dating a woman
00:04:49
30 years his junior.
00:04:53
[Music]
00:04:55
After Janice Johnson's death, the chief
00:04:58
medical examiner, Dr. Roland Perry,
00:05:00
performed an autopsy. He was hampered to
00:05:03
some extent by the fact that there were
00:05:05
no photographs of the accident scene.
00:05:09
In a misguided effort to be helpful, two
00:05:12
family friends had washed the blood from
00:05:14
the basement before photographs could be
00:05:16
taken. This is a police video shot later
00:05:20
as the women described the blood stains.
00:05:24
They said there was a small blood stain
00:05:26
on the floor at the bottom of the steps
00:05:28
and a blood stain with bloody hair on
00:05:31
the concrete wall next to the third
00:05:33
step.
00:05:34
[Applause]
00:05:36
This recreation shows the position of
00:05:39
Janice Johnson's body when paramedics
00:05:42
arrived.
00:05:44
Her head was on the floor, her leg was
00:05:46
above her head on the step. In her left
00:05:50
hand, she was holding her car keys.
00:05:54
Although Dr. Perry found Janice
00:05:56
Johnson's wounds to be unusual. He ruled
00:05:59
the death a freak accident, concluding
00:06:02
that she had fallen forward down the
00:06:05
steps to her death.
00:06:07
He suspected that her skull had become
00:06:10
wedged in a 5 and 1/2 in space between
00:06:12
the wooden steps and the adjoining
00:06:15
concrete wall, which crushed both sides
00:06:18
of her head. When she landed on the
00:06:21
concrete floor, she sustained the wound
00:06:24
to the top of her head. Since Janice
00:06:27
Johnson was thought to be in the house
00:06:29
alone at the time of the incident, foul
00:06:31
play was ruled out.
00:06:35
Janice was on the telephone with Claire
00:06:38
Thompson, who said she heard Clayton
00:06:41
kiss Janice goodbye before leaving for
00:06:43
work.
00:06:46
>> You think so? I don't know about that.
00:06:48
Well, you better look for me.
00:06:51
>> Claire Thompson said they talked for 10
00:06:53
minutes and that the call ended around
00:06:57
750.
00:06:58
>> Can I call you later?
00:06:59
>> Oh, sure. Okay. Talk to you then. Bye.
00:07:05
>> This morning? Yeah.
00:07:06
>> Witnesses saw Clayton Johnson at the gas
00:07:09
station at the same time.
00:07:10
>> Got myself a diesel.
00:07:13
[Music]
00:07:14
A minute or two later, a neighbor found
00:07:17
Janice in the basement and called
00:07:19
paramedics. The call was logged in at
00:07:22
752.
00:07:24
>> That was, so to speak, the end of that.
00:07:26
Of course, Clayton and his daughters had
00:07:29
to deal with uh the great loss that they
00:07:32
had suffered. Um, it was only uh after
00:07:36
some 18 months had passed that Clayton
00:07:39
really made what might be called a
00:07:40
dreadful mistake.
00:07:42
Clayton Johnson's mistake was to fall in
00:07:45
love. Soon after Janice's death, Clayton
00:07:48
started dating and later married
00:07:51
22-year-old Tina Waybritt.
00:07:55
She was a member of the Johnson's church
00:07:57
and was 30 years his junior.
00:08:00
In the close-knit conservative community
00:08:02
of Shelburn, this new relationship
00:08:05
raised a few eyebrows. Police also
00:08:09
discovered that Clayton Johnson had
00:08:11
purchased a $120,000 life insurance
00:08:15
policy on Janice 2 months before she
00:08:18
died. A background check revealed that
00:08:21
Clayton Johnson was also having
00:08:23
financial difficulties and that utility
00:08:26
services were sometimes cut off in their
00:08:28
home for nonpayment.
00:08:30
>> And pretty soon uh fact became confused
00:08:33
with rumor, rumor was fact. And the more
00:08:35
people talked, the more people wondered
00:08:37
whether this lovable teddy bear Clayton
00:08:39
Johnson was a wife killer.
00:08:43
So, police decided to reopen their
00:08:46
investigation
00:08:48
into Janice Johnson's death.
00:08:53
Homicide investigators went back to
00:08:56
reinter the woman who cleaned up the
00:08:58
blood after Janice Johnson's death. To
00:09:01
their surprise, two years later, one of
00:09:05
the women recalled seeing more blood in
00:09:08
the basement than she originally
00:09:10
reported on the walls,
00:09:13
across the length of the floor, and on
00:09:16
piles of lumber along the far wall.
00:09:20
Investigators took this new information
00:09:23
along with the autopsy photos to two of
00:09:26
Canada's most respected pathologists.
00:09:29
3 years after his wife's death, Clayton
00:09:32
Johnson was arrested and charged with
00:09:35
firstdegree murder.
00:09:38
Johnson pleaded not guilty to the
00:09:40
charge. Prosecutors introduced the new
00:09:43
blood spatter testimony and also raised
00:09:46
the issue of Johnson's new love
00:09:48
interest.
00:09:49
>> Clayton Johnson was on trial for events
00:09:51
that happened after the accident. He was
00:09:53
on trial for the insurance monies that
00:09:55
he collected. He was on trial for this
00:09:58
uh new girlfriend that he that he that
00:10:00
he had lived move in with him.
00:10:02
>> Clayton Johnson was found guilty of
00:10:05
firstdegree murder and was sentenced to
00:10:08
life in prison.
00:10:10
>> I don't know how yet I stood up. I could
00:10:12
feel my knees and everything get weak
00:10:14
and I took all my power was to keep
00:10:16
standing up, not falling down. It just
00:10:18
it was a shock, I'll tell you.
00:10:22
Have you ever felt like you were reading
00:10:25
a book?
00:10:28
That's what it seemed like. It didn't
00:10:29
seem like it was it could be happening
00:10:32
in my life.
00:10:35
>> Johnson was ordered to serve his
00:10:36
sentence in the Atlantic Maximum
00:10:38
Security Institution.
00:10:41
From there, he contacted the Association
00:10:45
in Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted
00:10:47
in Toronto. His story caught the
00:10:51
attention of the director of the
00:10:53
organization, James Locker.
00:10:55
>> As you go back through the miscarriages
00:10:58
of justice in both our country, uh, in
00:11:00
the in Canada, that is in the United
00:11:02
States and in England, very often,
00:11:06
probably as often as 40 to 50% of the
00:11:08
time, a bad science has played a
00:11:11
significant role in a wrongful
00:11:12
conviction.
00:11:14
But the first thing Locker noticed
00:11:17
wasn't just questionable science. It was
00:11:20
a problem with the timeline.
00:11:25
>> Clare Thompson said she was on the
00:11:27
telephone with Janice Johnson on the
00:11:29
morning of her death.
00:11:30
>> Yeah. Elseie and I.
00:11:31
>> In her original statement, Thompson said
00:11:34
she heard Clayton kiss Janice goodbye at
00:11:37
approximately 7:40.
00:11:40
>> Oh, sure. She said the call with Janice
00:11:42
lasted 10 minutes until about 7:50.
00:11:47
A witness said Clayton Johnson was at
00:11:49
the gas station at the same time, 7:50,
00:11:53
when Clare Thompson said she was ending
00:11:55
her call to Janice.
00:11:58
>> 911.
00:11:58
>> The neighbor found Janice's body and
00:12:01
called paramedics at 7:52.
00:12:04
>> Clayton was aware that Janice was
00:12:06
expecting company that morning. any
00:12:08
theory that he would kill his wife uh in
00:12:12
a time span of seconds or or minutes
00:12:16
when he could legitimately expect three
00:12:19
different people to show up at the house
00:12:21
uh in that very time that he was
00:12:23
supposedly assaulting his wife. You put
00:12:25
all that together, the theory he killed
00:12:27
his wife was, in my view, completely
00:12:29
ridiculous.
00:12:31
>> Blood spatter expert Herb Macdonald was
00:12:33
also skeptical. He believes that the
00:12:36
witness's original statements were
00:12:39
probably the most accurate.
00:12:41
>> The neighbors at that time reported that
00:12:44
the blood was consistent with an
00:12:46
accident. Now, obviously, they're not
00:12:49
qualified to interpret blood stained
00:12:51
patterns, but had they seen a lot of
00:12:53
spattering, or if they'd seen blood up
00:12:56
on the walls and ceiling, I think at
00:12:59
that time, even though they were
00:13:01
cleaning it up, they would have a clear
00:13:04
recollection of what it looked like and
00:13:06
especially where they washed it up.
00:13:09
Another story that changed was Claire
00:13:12
Thompson's. In her original statement,
00:13:16
she said she called Janice around 7:40
00:13:19
and that the call lasted for 10 minutes.
00:13:22
>> Two years later, she said she may have
00:13:25
called closer to 7:30.
00:13:28
This created the window of opportunity
00:13:31
for Johnson to have murdered his wife.
00:13:35
James Locker asked two forensic
00:13:37
pathologists to review the forensic
00:13:39
evidence independently.
00:13:42
Dr. Linda Norton of Dallas, Texas, and
00:13:45
Dr. James Ferris of Vancouver.
00:13:49
They both examined the case file and
00:13:52
autopsy photos, and it was what they
00:13:55
didn't see that they found most
00:13:58
intriguing.
00:13:59
>> There are no defense wounds. And in a
00:14:02
bludgeoning of this nature, considering
00:14:04
the location of the head wounds, one
00:14:07
would expect to see defensive wounds if
00:14:10
this were an actual bludgeoning death.
00:14:14
>> During an attack, most individuals
00:14:16
instinctively raise their hands to
00:14:18
protect themselves. As a result, their
00:14:22
hands and forearms sustain injuries.
00:14:25
There's absolutely no evidence that any
00:14:27
of the injuries were as a result of some
00:14:30
form of homicidal assault.
00:14:33
>> Janice Johnson's car keys were in her
00:14:36
hand when paramedics arrived.
00:14:39
The lack of arm wounds and the car keys
00:14:42
also cast doubt on the original forensic
00:14:45
report which stated that Janice fell
00:14:48
forwards down the steps. What occurred
00:14:51
is that she slipped at the top of the
00:14:53
stairs and she fell backwards instead of
00:14:56
forwards. And of course, most falls down
00:14:59
the stairs or forward falls. Backward
00:15:01
falls are uncommon. And I think that's
00:15:03
what led to an awful lot of the
00:15:05
misinterpretation that occurred in this
00:15:07
case.
00:15:08
>> Clayton Johnson's new defense team now
00:15:11
had two major hurdles. first to prove to
00:15:16
the court that Johnson was innocent and
00:15:19
also to show how Janice Johnson really
00:15:23
died.
00:15:26
[Music]
00:15:28
By the time Clayton Johnson's new
00:15:30
defense team gathered their information,
00:15:32
he had spent 6 years behind bars.
00:15:36
It was a life Johnson had no choice but
00:15:39
to get used to. It's a whole new ball
00:15:41
game as far as your change of life
00:15:43
style, the whole thing. You know, it's
00:15:45
it's a rude awakening.
00:15:47
>> Johnson's team of forensic experts did
00:15:49
not believe that his wife's injuries
00:15:52
were consistent with the bludgeoning
00:15:54
death, and they did not think that she
00:15:57
had fallen forwards as was originally
00:16:00
reported. They believed that Janice had
00:16:03
fallen backwards. To get Johnson's
00:16:07
conviction overturned, his lawyers
00:16:09
needed to find a way to show how the
00:16:12
accident really happened. They turned to
00:16:15
blood spatter expert Herb Macdonald. But
00:16:18
after studying the case file, Macdonald
00:16:21
couldn't figure out a way to recreate an
00:16:24
accidental fall down the basement steps.
00:16:28
the very night that I was about ready to
00:16:31
call James Lock here and advise him that
00:16:33
I just I could not do my recreation and
00:16:37
I've done many of these reconstructions
00:16:39
or recreations if you like. Uh I was
00:16:41
very disappointed and I told him I was
00:16:43
about to tell him that I I just couldn't
00:16:46
do it. And that night I read the morning
00:16:49
paper. I frequently don't read the paper
00:16:51
until a day late. And on the front page
00:16:54
here's Peter Pan at West High School.
00:16:57
And of course I thought, hey,
00:17:03
>> look at me up highen.
00:17:06
I'm flying.
00:17:07
>> In the production of the musical Peter
00:17:09
Pan, various characters fly across the
00:17:12
stage in a harness.
00:17:15
Macdonald called the high school,
00:17:17
borrowed the transom and the operator,
00:17:19
and hired a model the same height and
00:17:22
weight as Janice Johnson.
00:17:25
Macdonald then built a replica of the
00:17:27
Johnson's basement steps. He videotaped
00:17:31
the entire procedure and put blue chalk
00:17:34
on the wall and step where witnesses saw
00:17:37
the blood
00:17:39
with the model at the top of the steps.
00:17:42
She fell backwards.
00:17:46
[Music]
00:17:48
When her head fell into the gap in
00:17:51
between the third step and the concrete
00:17:54
wall, the chalk marks on the model's
00:17:57
head were consistent with the injuries
00:18:00
found on Janice Johnson.
00:18:02
>> There's no question that that is a good
00:18:05
explanation for how the wounds on Janet
00:18:07
Johnson occurred over her right ear.
00:18:10
It's remarkable when you see it because
00:18:11
the blue marks appear on the model's
00:18:16
head exactly where the injuries are
00:18:20
found on Janice's left and right
00:18:21
temples.
00:18:24
>> James Locher believes that Janice
00:18:27
Johnson was still on the telephone when
00:18:29
Clayton was at the gas station.
00:18:33
>> And then what are you going to do? and
00:18:36
that the call ended at 7:50 just as her
00:18:39
neighbor was arriving at the house.
00:18:41
>> Uh, you know, I've got to go. I'll talk
00:18:43
to you later.
00:18:45
[Music]
00:18:47
>> She grabbed her car keys, ran up the
00:18:49
steps, and lost her footing.
00:19:04
As she fell backwards, her head became
00:19:07
wedged in the 5 and 1/2 in gap between
00:19:09
the step and the cement wall. Her feet
00:19:13
pulled her head from the gap, flipping
00:19:15
her body over onto the basement floor,
00:19:17
producing the gash found on the top of
00:19:20
her head. When all of this information
00:19:23
came to light, Canadian prosecutors took
00:19:26
the unusual step of releasing Clayton
00:19:29
Johnson from prison.
00:19:32
He had spent 6 years behind bars.
00:19:38
I'm just very happy to be back with my
00:19:40
family.
00:19:42
I'm very pleased with the decision of
00:19:44
Justice Freeman and I couldn't ask for a
00:19:47
better legal team than what I've got.
00:19:50
and I just want to get back with my
00:19:52
family.
00:19:52
>> I'm really happy right now because that
00:19:54
means my dad's actually going to see me
00:19:56
graduate.
00:19:58
I've got my father back in my life.
00:20:02
>> Although authorities have made no final
00:20:05
decisions about the case, and there's
00:20:07
always the chance of a retrial, many
00:20:10
believe it will simply be dismissed.
00:20:15
for a crime forensic experts say didn't
00:20:18
happen. Six years in prison is enough.
00:20:22
>> That's quite right. Indeed, Clayton
00:20:24
Johnson wasn't convicted of a murder uh
00:20:27
that he didn't commit. He was convicted
00:20:29
of a murder that never happened.
00:20:31
>> We've made an error. So once you
00:20:34
recognize you've made an error, you do
00:20:36
the best you can to rectify it. And the
00:20:38
best way to rectify this case is simply
00:20:40
to acquit this man, exonerate him, and
00:20:43
let him go on with his life.
00:20:46
>> Well, I was given all a different
00:20:47
opinion as far as, you know, the justice
00:20:48
system is concerned because I mean, I've
00:20:51
always been brought up right from the
00:20:52
time I most walk around that, you know,
00:20:54
the police were your friend, that you
00:20:56
held them on a certain level. And uh
00:20:59
just after going through this, it makes
00:21:00
you think twice.
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:12
Why?
00:21:15
[Music]
00:21:27
Heat.
00:21:30
[Music]
