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| DNA Tests Offer Hope to Pa. Death Row Inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/05/2003 |
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DNA evidence proves that a man on death row since 1983 for rape and murder is innocent, a defense attorney said July 28. Nicholas James Yarris, 42, of Philadelphia, who is on death row for the murder of Linda Mae Craig, 32, of Boothwyn, was convicted based on blood evidence now proven unreliable, a confession he contends he did not make and erroneous witness testimony that put him at the scene of the crime, attorney Christina Swarns said. Recent tests show that Yarris' DNA did not match physical evidence left on the victim's clothing and under her fingernails, said Swarns, of the Federal Defender Association. The association said that Yarris is the first person on death row in Pennsylvania to be cleared by DNA testing. In the late 1980s, Yarris - who has maintained his innocence - was one of the first prisoners in the state to demand DNA testing. Test results done at a state police lab in 1992 were inconclusive. After Yarris exhausted his state court appeals, federal defenders took over the case and in 1997 demanded new tests. Swarns said that it likely was Yarris' last chance to prove his innocence through DNA testing, Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green's office said it would review the tests. Yarris' attorneys have submitted the test results to U.S. District Chief Judge James T. Giles. The judge likely will hold a hearing with lawyers for both sides to determine what happens next: whether or when Yarris should be released, if he should be retried or whether additional investigation is needed. A jury in July 1982 convicted Yarris, then 21, of first-degree murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery. Prosecutors had argued that Craig, who worked part-time at the Tri-State Shopping Mall in Claymont, Del., resembled a girlfriend of Yarris' who had jilted him. He was sentenced to death in January 1983 and is on death row at the Graterford state prison near Philadelphia. Witnesses testified that Yarris stalked Craig - who was working part-time at the mall to earn Christmas money - for 10 days, abducted her in her own car from the parking lot on Dec. 15, 1981, and drove her across the state line to Pennsylvania. Her battered body, with a half dozen stab wounds to the chest, was discovered the following day by children making a snowman in a church parking lot in Upper Chichester, Delaware County, not far from her home. |
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