AKRON, Ohio -- The Ohio attorney general wants to release a man in prison for rape and murder, NewsChannel5 reported.

Clarence Elkins, 42, is serving a life sentence for the 1998 rape and murder of his mother-in-law, Judith Johnson, 58, and rape of his then 6-year-old granddaughter.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation has confirmed DNA tests conducted by a private company that show Clarence Elkins, 42, could not have committed the crimes, Attorney General Jim Petro wrote in a letter Friday to Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh.

Prosecutors aren't convinced. They want further tests done before releasing Elkins.

Petro said he'll fight any effort to keep Elkins behind bars.

Mark Godsey, a University of Cincinnati law professor, has said the DNA from the evidence is a close match to Earl Gene Mann, 32.

Mann, who has not been officially linked to the crimes for which Elkins was convicted, is serving a seven-year sentence for raping three girls.

Elkins helped secure the DNA sample by retrieving a cigarette butt used by Mann, a fellow inmate at the Mansfield Correctional Institution.

Godsey is director of the Ohio Innocence Project, which seeks to apply DNA evidence to clear people who are wrongly convicted. He sent the DNA tests conducted by a private company, Orchid Cellmark, to Petro's office a month ago.

In July, Summit County Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter ruled that the possibility that Elkins' DNA doesn't match the crime DNA, meaning someone else must have committed the crime, would not have persuaded a jury to disregard the prosecution evidence presented at Elkins' trial.

Elkins was convicted in 1999 primarily on the strength of his niece's testimony, who said she saw her "Uncle Clarence" attack her grandmother before he attacked her.

Three years ago, Elkins' niece recanted her identification. In 2002, a judge denied Elkins' bid for a new trial, saying the girl's retraction was tainted in part by Elkins' other family members.

The Summit County prosecutor's office received Petro's letter late Friday, said Mary Ann Kovach, chief counsel of the criminal division. Kovach said she plans to review the test results with the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

Kovach also plans to talk with Petro's office to make clear the case was based on the niece's testimony, not the DNA evidence.

"If they really believe it's a DNA case and there's other evidence that suggests that Elkins is innocent and someone else is guilty, we are certainly going to pursue that," Kovach said.