00:00:05
and then what are you going to do on the
00:00:06
morning of february 20th 1989 something
00:00:10
terrible happened to janice johnson a 35
00:00:13
year old housewife and mother of two
00:00:15
children uh claire i gotta go i'll talk
00:00:17
to you later okay
00:00:20
[Music]
00:00:34
the investigation into that morning's
00:00:36
event would raise questions that persist
00:00:40
to this day
00:00:44
[Music]
00:00:53
so
00:00:55
[Music]
00:01:07
clayton and janice johnson lived in the
00:01:09
tiny coastal fishing village of
00:01:11
shelburne nova scotia
00:01:14
it's a close-knit community where
00:01:16
townspeople all know one another
00:01:19
for the johnsons shelburne was the ideal
00:01:22
place to raise their two young daughters
00:01:24
eleven-year-old darla and nine-year-old
00:01:27
dawn
00:01:28
we had two lovely girls and you know
00:01:29
perfect very less concerned we were
00:01:31
always together like even asking anybody
00:01:33
around the community whenever they seen
00:01:34
us we were the four of us we always
00:01:35
together
00:01:36
very very rarely we ever went anywhere
00:01:38
individually clayton was an industrial
00:01:41
arts teacher at the local high school
00:01:43
janice was a homemaker
00:01:45
the johnsons were a deeply religious
00:01:47
family and very active in their church
00:01:50
volunteering much of their free time to
00:01:52
church activities we were always out
00:01:54
visiting people and doing this and that
00:01:57
my mom was the type of person that she
00:01:59
didn't like to just sit around and do
00:02:01
nothing so we were always busy doing
00:02:03
something
00:02:04
um
00:02:08
and
00:02:09
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
00:02:26
basement for his wife
00:02:30
moments later the telephone rang clayton
00:02:32
answered on the basement extension
00:02:37
[Music]
00:02:46
and told her i was going to give her a
00:02:47
kiss goodbye and i
00:02:59
clayton then left for work stopping
00:03:01
along the way at a local gas station
00:03:10
[Music]
00:03:17
a few minutes later
00:03:18
a neighbor stopped by the johnson's home
00:03:24
he discovered janice at the bottom of
00:03:27
the stairs
00:03:28
she was bloody and unconscious but still
00:03:31
alive
00:03:33
clayton heard the news when he arrived
00:03:36
at work
00:03:37
and rushed to the hospital
00:03:39
when i first seen her i didn't recognize
00:03:41
her because of like all the tubes and
00:03:43
and swelling so i got and i'd look
00:03:45
almost twice to realize it was her and
00:03:49
it's just
00:03:50
just one of those things i want to see
00:03:52
every day
00:03:54
janice had sustained severe head
00:03:56
injuries from what was assumed to be an
00:03:58
accidental fall down the basement steps
00:04:02
despite the best of medical treatment
00:04:05
janice died of her head wound several
00:04:08
hours later
00:04:09
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
00:04:19
it wasn't real
00:04:21
like
00:04:22
you want to believe it didn't happen
00:04:26
that's one of the hardest things i've
00:04:26
ever done in my life is to tell the two
00:04:28
girls that their mother passed away
00:04:30
[Music]
00:04:32
the small community of shelburne rallied
00:04:34
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
00:04:45
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
00:05:02
he was hampered to some extent by the
00:05:04
fact that there were no photographs of
00:05:06
the accident scene
00:05:09
in a misguided effort to be helpful two
00:05:11
family friends had washed the blood from
00:05:14
the basement before photographs could be
00:05:16
taken
00:05:17
this is a police video shot later as the
00:05:21
women described the bloodstains
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 the blood stain with bloody hair on
00:05:31
the concrete wall next to the third step
00:05:34
[Applause]
00:05:36
this recreation shows the position of
00:05:39
janice johnson's body when paramedics
00:05:41
arrived
00:05:44
her head was on the floor
00:05:46
her leg was above her head on the step
00:05:49
in her left hand
00:05:51
she was holding her car keys
00:05:54
although dr perry found janice johnson's
00:05:56
wounds to be unusual he ruled the death
00:06:00
a freak accident concluding that she had
00:06:03
fallen forward down the steps to her
00:06:05
death
00:06:07
he suspected that her skull had become
00:06:10
wedged in a five and a half inch space
00:06:12
between the wooden steps and the
00:06:14
adjoining concrete wall which crushed
00:06:17
both sides of her head when she landed
00:06:20
on the concrete floor she sustained the
00:06:23
wound to the top of her head
00:06:26
since janice johnson was thought to be
00:06:28
in the house alone at the time of the
00:06:30
incident foul play was ruled out
00:06:35
janice was on the telephone with claire
00:06:38
thompson who said she heard clayton kiss
00:06:41
janice goodbye before leaving for work
00:06:45
you think so i don't know
00:06:48
well you better look for me
00:06:51
claire thompson said they'd talk for 10
00:06:53
minutes and that the call ended around 7
00:06:57
15.
00:06:58
oh sure
00:07:00
okay
00:07:06
witnesses saw clayton johnson at the gas
00:07:09
station at the same time
00:07:13
[Music]
00:07:14
a minute or two later
00:07:16
a neighbor found janus in the basement
00:07:19
and called paramedics the call was
00:07:21
logged in at 7 52.
00:07:24
that was so to speak the end of that of
00:07:26
course clayton
00:07:28
and his daughters had to deal with
00:07:30
the great loss that they had suffered
00:07:33
it was only
00:07:35
after some 18 months have passed
00:07:38
that clayton really made what might be
00:07:40
called a dreadful mistake
00:07:42
clayton johnson's mistake
00:07:44
was to fall in love
00:07:46
soon after janice's death clayton
00:07:48
started dating and later married
00:07:51
22 year old tina waybritt
00:07:54
she was a member of the johnson's church
00:07:56
and was 30 years his junior
00:08:00
in the close-knit conservative community
00:08:02
of shelburne
00:08:04
this new relationship raised a few
00:08:06
eyebrows
00:08:08
police also discovered that clayton
00:08:10
johnson had purchased a 120 000 life
00:08:14
insurance policy on janus two months
00:08:17
before she died
00:08:19
a background check revealed that clayton
00:08:21
johnson was also having financial
00:08:24
difficulties and that utility services
00:08:26
were sometimes cut off in their home for
00:08:28
non-payment and pretty soon uh fact
00:08:32
became confused with rumor rumor was
00:08:34
fact and the more people talked the more
00:08:36
people wondered whether this lovable
00:08:38
teddy bear clayton johnson
00:08:40
was a wife killer
00:08:43
so police decided
00:08:45
to reopen their investigation
00:08:48
into janice johnson's death
00:08:51
[Music]
00:08:53
homicide investigators went back to
00:08:55
re-interview the woman who cleaned up
00:08:58
the blood after janice johnson's death
00:09:01
to their surprise
00:09:03
two years later one of the women
00:09:05
recalled seeing more blood in the
00:09:08
basement than she originally reported
00:09:11
on the walls
00:09:13
across the length of the floor
00:09:15
and on piles of lumber along the far
00:09:18
wall
00:09:20
investigators took this new information
00:09:23
along with the autopsy photos to two of
00:09:25
canada's most respected pathologists
00:09:29
three years after his wife's death
00:09:32
clayton johnson was arrested and charged
00:09:35
with first degree murder
00:09:37
johnson pleaded not guilty to the charge
00:09:41
prosecutors introduced the new blood
00:09:43
spatter testimony and also raised the
00:09:46
issue of johnson's new love 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 in trial for this
00:09:58
new girlfriend that he that he
00:09:59
that he had lived move in with him
00:10:01
clayton johnson was found guilty of
00:10:05
first degree murder
00:10:06
and was sentenced to 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
00:10:13
and i took all my power was just keep
00:10:16
standing up not falling down just
00:10:18
it was a shock i'll tell you
00:10:22
have you ever felt like
00:10:24
you were reading a book
00:10:28
it's what it seemed like it didn't seem
00:10:29
like it was
00:10:31
it could be happening in my life
00:10:34
johnson was ordered to serve his
00:10:36
sentence in the atlantic maximum
00:10:38
security institution
00:10:40
from there
00:10:42
he contacted the association in defense
00:10:45
of the wrongfully convicted in toronto
00:10:49
his story caught the attention of the
00:10:52
director of the organization james
00:10:54
lockyer
00:10:55
as you go back through the miscarriages
00:10:57
of justice in both our country
00:11:00
in the in canada that is in the united
00:11:02
states and in england
00:11:04
very often
00:11:06
probably as often as 40 to 50 of the
00:11:08
time
00:11:08
a bad science has played a significant
00:11:11
role in a wrongful conviction
00:11:14
but the first thing lockyer noticed
00:11:16
wasn't just questionable science
00:11:19
it was a problem with the timeline
00:11:25
claire thompson said she was on the
00:11:27
telephone with janice johnson on the
00:11:29
morning of her death
00:11:31
in her original statement thompson said
00:11:34
she heard clayton kiss janice goodbye
00:11:36
at approximately 7 40.
00:11:40
sure she said the call with janice
00:11:42
lasted 10 minutes until about 7 50.
00:11:46
a witness said clayton johnson was at
00:11:49
the gas station at the same time 7 50
00:11:53
when claire thompson said she was ending
00:11:55
her call to janice
00:11:58
the neighbor found janice's body and
00:12:00
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
00:12:11
uh in a time span of
00:12:13
seconds or minutes when he could
00:12:16
legitimately expect three different
00:12:19
people to show up at the house
00:12:21
in that very time that he was supposedly
00:12:23
assaulting his wife
00:12:24
you put all that together the theory of
00:12:26
killed his wife was in my view
00:12:29
completely ridiculous
00:12:30
blood spatter expert herb mcdonald was
00:12:33
also skeptical
00:12:35
he believes that the witnesses original
00:12:38
statements were probably the most
00:12:39
accurate the neighbors at that time
00:12:42
reported that the blood was consistent
00:12:45
with an accident
00:12:47
now obviously they're not qualified to
00:12:49
interpret blood stain patterns but had
00:12:52
they seen a lot of spattering
00:12:54
or if they'd seen blood up on the walls
00:12:56
and ceiling
00:12:58
i think at that time
00:13:00
even though they were cleaning it up
00:13:02
they would have a clear recollection of
00:13:04
what it looked like and especially where
00:13:07
they washed it up
00:13:09
another story that changed was claire
00:13:12
thompson's
00:13:13
in her original statement she said she
00:13:16
called janice around 7 40 and that the
00:13:19
call lasted for 10 minutes
00:13:22
two years later
00:13:24
she said she may have called closer to 7
00:13:27
30.
00:13:28
this created the window of opportunity
00:13:31
for johnson to have murdered his wife
00:13:35
james lockyer 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
00:13:44
and dr james ferris of vancouver
00:13:49
they both examined the case file and
00:13:51
autopsy photos
00:13:53
and it was what they didn't see
00:13:56
that they found most 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
00:14:07
one would expect to see defensive wounds
00:14:10
if this were an actual bludgeoning death
00:14:14
during an attack
00:14:15
most individuals instinctively raise
00:14:18
their hands to protect themselves
00:14:20
as a result
00:14:21
their hands and forearms sustain
00:14:24
injuries there's absolutely no evidence
00:14:27
that any of the injuries were as a
00:14:29
result of some 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 the janice fell
00:14:48
forwards down the steps
00:14:50
what occurred is that she slipped at the
00:14:53
top of the stairs
00:14:54
and she fell backwards instead of
00:14:56
forwards
00:14:57
and of course most falls down the stairs
00:14:59
are forward falls backward falls are
00:15:02
uncommon and i think that's what led to
00:15:04
an awful lot of the misinterpretation
00:15:06
that occurred in this case
00:15:08
clayton johnson's new defense team
00:15:11
now had two major hurdles first
00:15:14
to prove to the court that johnson was
00:15:18
innocent
00:15:19
and also to show
00:15:21
how janice johnson really 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 six years behind bars
00:15:36
it was a life johnson had no choice but
00:15:39
to get used to
00:15:40
it's a whole new ballgame versus your
00:15:42
change of life style the whole thing you
00:15:44
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
00:15:55
and they did not think that she had
00:15:57
fallen forwards
00:15:59
as was originally reported
00:16:01
they believed that janus had fallen
00:16:04
backwards
00:16:05
to get johnson's conviction overturned
00:16:08
his lawyers needed to find a way to show
00:16:11
how the accident really happened
00:16:14
they turned to blood spatter expert herb
00:16:17
mcdonnell but after studying the case
00:16:19
file mcdonnell couldn't figure out a way
00:16:22
to recreate an accidental fall down the
00:16:26
basement steps
00:16:28
the very night that i was about ready to
00:16:30
call james lockher and advise him that i
00:16:33
just i could not do my recreation and
00:16:36
i've done many of these reconstructions
00:16:38
or recreations if you like
00:16:41
i was very disappointed and i told him i
00:16:43
was about to tell him that i i just
00:16:45
couldn't do it
00:16:47
and that night i read the morning paper
00:16:49
i frequently don't read the paper until
00:16:51
a day late
00:16:52
and on the front page here's peter pan
00:16:55
at west high school
00:16:57
and of course i thought hey
00:16:59
i'm flying
00:17:02
look at me way up high suddenly here am
00:17:05
i i'm flying in the production of the
00:17:08
musical peter pan various characters fly
00:17:11
across the stage in a harness
00:17:15
mcdonald 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
mcdonnell 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
00:17:38
with the model at the top of the steps
00:17:42
she fell backwards
00:17:44
[Music]
00:17:48
when her head fell into the gap in
00:17:51
between the third step and the concrete
00:17:53
wall
00:17:55
the chalk marks on the model's head
00:17:57
were consistent with the injuries found
00:18:00
on janice johnson
00:18:02
there's no question that that is a good
00:18:04
explanation for how the wounds on janet
00:18:07
johnson occurred over her right here
00:18:10
it's remarkable when you see it because
00:18:11
the blue marks appear
00:18:14
on the model's head
00:18:16
exactly where the injuries are found on
00:18:20
janus's left and right temples
00:18:24
james lochter believes that janice
00:18:27
johnson was still on the telephone when
00:18:29
clayton was at the gas station
00:18:35
and that the call ended at 7 50 just as
00:18:38
her neighbor was arriving at the house
00:18:41
uh you know i've gotta go i'll talk to
00:18:43
you later
00:18:43
[Music]
00:18:47
she grabbed her car keys ran up the
00:18:49
steps
00:18:50
and lost her footing
00:18:54
[Music]
00:19:04
as she fell backwards her head became
00:19:07
wedged in the five and a half inch gap
00:19:09
between the step and the cement wall
00:19:12
her feet pulled her head from the gap
00:19:14
flipping her body over onto the basement
00:19:16
floor producing the gash found on the
00:19:19
top of her head
00:19:21
when all of this information came to
00:19:23
light canadian prosecutors took the
00:19:26
unusual step of releasing clayton
00:19:29
johnson from prison
00:19:32
he had spent
00:19:34
six years behind bars
00:19:38
just
00:19:38
very happy back with my family
00:19:42
i'm very pleased with the decision of
00:19:44
justice freeman
00:19:46
and i couldn't ask for a better legal
00:19:47
team than what i've got
00:19:50
and i just want to get back with my
00:19:51
family i'm really happy right now
00:19:54
because that means my dad's actually
00:19:55
going to see me 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 re-trial
00:20:10
many believe
00:20:11
it will simply be dismissed
00:20:15
for a crime forensic experts say didn't
00:20:18
happen
00:20:19
six years in prison is enough
00:20:22
that's quite right indeed
00:20:24
clayton johnson wasn't convicted of a
00:20:26
murder
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 let
00:20:43
him go on with his life
00:20:46
whilst giving us all a different opinion
00:20:47
as far as you know the justice system is
00:20:48
concerned
00:20:50
because i mean i've always been brought
00:20:51
up right from the time i could walk
00:20:53
around that you know the police were
00:20:55
your friend that you held them on a
00:20:56
certain level
00:20:58
and
00:20:59
just after going through this it makes
00:21:00
you think twice
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:18
[Music]
00:21:26
[Applause]
00:21:30
[Music]
00:21:41
you
