Clifton Spencer

The Crime

On February 3rd, 1990, Elizabeth Stacey Stanton was found dead in her apartment in Manteo, North Carolina. She had been repeatedly stabbed, her throat was slit, and she had been sexually mutilated by a sharp object after her death. The crime was the worst that Manteo had seen in decades, and it was right before Manteo’s tourism season that boosted the town, thus placing pressure on the police to make an arrest.

The Investigation

The immediate suspect in the murder was Stanton’s estranged boyfriend, Mike Brandon. However, his new girlfriend, whom he was dating while still with Stanton, was able to provide a sufficient alibi to satisfy law enforcement. It has also been claimed that Brandon passed a polygraph test “with flying colors,” but the circumstances of this polygraph test are unknown. Law enforcement then shifted the investigation to Clifton “Cliff” Spencer, who was the last person to see Stanton alive. Cliff was a young black man who was a friend of the victim and had met up with her the night before her murder, staying with her for part of the night before leaving her apartment around 4:00 a.m. and going to another friend’s house.

Cliff was arrested in Columbia, NC, on an unrelated charge from New Jersey and was immediately interrogated by police regarding Stanton’s murder. When questioned, he maintained his innocence and was cooperative in answering all questions. An attorney was not present for these initial conversations. While in jail as a suspect, he was taken from the Tyrrell County jail to Dare County, without the court’s permission. While in Dare County, without a lawyer present and under threatening circumstances, Cliff gave what law enforcement referred to as an “incriminating” statement – he sighed and put his head down out of tiredness when he was asked if he killed Stanton.

Evidence was found that pointed to someone other than Cliff. When the victim was found, there were many hairs on her chest and stomach, in her mouth, and in her hand. The hairs were tested, and it was discovered that they could not have come from someone who was black. In fact, the hairs looked like white male chest hairs.

Law enforcement decided that there was enough evidence to charge Cliff with first-degree murder. No murder weapon was found, no blood was found on Mr. Spencer’s clothes or in the chair he slept in at the house of his friend, whom he visited after being with Stanton. The only evidence that he committed the murder was his weak “incriminating” statement and a latent fingerprint that showed he had visited Stanton’s apartment. The prosecution claimed that Cliff failed a polygraph in February of 1990, but those results were never revealed.  In October of 1994, Mr. Spencer’s lawyer had a polygraph administered, and he passed “with flying colors.”

The Plea

In fear of racial prejudice and bias, Cliff’s family hired a civil rights attorney from Greensboro, and many issues arose. The attorney never visited the crime scene or spoke to any police officers and other law enforcement officials who investigated the case.  He also never spoke with any potential witnesses given to him by both Cliff and listed in police reports as having seen the victim and the defendant before Stanton’s death. He didn’t file any motions to suppress the “incriminating” statement given without an attorney present, nor did he file a motion requesting funds to hire an investigator to discover potential defense witnesses and other suspects. After not doing any work on the case, and with the help of Cliff’s family members, the attorney pressured Cliff to plead no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Post Conviction

Upon realizing his attorney was ineffective in his counsel, Cliff filed a motion for appropriate relief, asking for his guilty plea to be revoked and to go to trial. Edgar Barnes, his attorney for the motion, worked tirelessly to have the plea overturned based on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, but the motion was denied. Barnes did not give up on Cliff’s innocence, writing to District Attorney Frank Parish asking for his case to be reopened.

The Center began representing Cliff in 2003, and with the consent of then-District Attorney Frank Parrish, DNA testing was conducted on the remaining evidence. None of the testing results tied to Cliff, but they also did not identify the actual perpetrator.  At the request of Chris Mumma, District Attorney Frank Parish did write in support of granting Cliff’s parole, which was eventually granted. Although Cliff is no longer in prison for the murder, he has yet to be exonerated.

As the sensitivity of DNA testing has improved since the last round of testing, the Center is evaluating the potential for new testing.  Now, technology is so sensitive that it can detect a DNA profile from as little as a single cell, and it can analyze complex mixtures. Hopefully, this innovative technology will give Cliff his long-deserved chance to prove his complete innocence of this terrible crime.

Clifton’s Case in the Media: