Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Parole Board announced today it would recommend parole for a 54-year-old convicted rapist imprisoned since 1976.

The board voted 5-0 to recommend that Gov. Mike Beebe make Sampson Ellis immediately eligible for parole after 33 years behind bars.

Ellis, convicted in Cleveland County and sentenced to life in prison, admitted in his clemency application that he was in the residence when the rape occurred but denied participating in the crime.

“I am not guilty of this act and have been suffering for it for a long time … simply because of my ignorance of not knowing the law and how to defend myself being a 20-year-old kid at the time,” he wrote.

Allen Phillips was arrested with Ellis and also convicted of rape and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Phillips was later paroled and is now serving a life sentence for capital murder and first-degree battery.

Board member Richard May wrote in the clemency recommendation that Ellis was in the prison’s Men’s Fraternity, participated in the Character First program, worked as a pre-release counselor and had completed his GED.