DNA Tests Clear Pennsylvania Capital Inmate After 21 Years

Prosecutors in Media, Pa., said Tuesday that they had dismissed all charges against a man who spent 21 years on death row for a rape and murder that DNA tests show he did not commit.

Nicholas J. Yarris, now 43, became the 10th death row inmate exonerated this year and the 112th overall -- not all because of DNA tests -- according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. It was the first DNA exoneration of a capital inmate in Pennsylvania.

Maureen K. Rowley, chief federal public defender in Philadelphia, said the Yarris case was emblematic of the problems with the death penalty system in the U.S.

Despite his innocence, she said, Yarris “narrowly avoided execution at the last minute in the final stages of appealing his case,” as a result of “cutting-edge science and legal work.”

“Obviously, Mr. Yarris and his family are deeply gratified by this development, for which they have waited for two decades,” said Michael Wiseman, assistant federal public defender in Philadelphia, one of Yarris’ appellate lawyers.

Sheldon Kovach, deputy district attorney in Delaware County, said the DNA tests did not indicate who raped and killed Linda Mae Craig, a 32-year-old mother of three. The samples did not match anyone in the state’s DNA databank. Prosecutors plan to ask the FBI to compare DNA samples with its national database.

The DNA tests that led to the exoneration were conducted by Edward T. Blake and Alan Keel of Forensic Science Associates, based in Richmond, Calif. Blake said his lab worked on the case for five years. Important evidence had been damaged or destroyed during earlier phases of the case, he said.

The lab tested three items -- gloves found in the car of the victim, sperm cells on her underwear and skin cells under her fingernails.

Yarris’ DNA did not match that found on any of the items, said Blake, whose work has played a key role in numerous death penalty exonerations. He has also has worked for prosecutorial agencies around the country, including the Delaware County prosecutors.

Yarris was convicted of murdering Craig, who was kidnapped from a mall where she worked in Claymont, Del., on Dec. 15, 1981.

When she did not return home at the normal time, her husband called the police. Later that evening her 1976 Chrysler Cordoba -- with blood inside -- was found abandoned on a Pennsylvania road.

Her body was found in a church parking lot near Chichester, Pa., a few days later.

A month later, Yarris, who had previously been convicted of theft, was pulled over on a traffic offense. A fight ensued, and Yarris was taken into custody.

While in jail, Yarris, in an attempt to get out of solitary confinement, made up a story. He said that he and another man had gone to the mall to steal a car and the other man told him he had murdered a woman who owned a Chrysler Cordoba. The police checked out the other man and ruled him out. Then they turned their suspicions on Yarris, who admitted he had lied about the story.

Yarris was indicted. At his trial, another inmate said Yarris admitted to the murder.

The sole physical evidence presented at trial was that blood found on Craig’s body was type B, Yarris’ type. A forensic scientist testifying for the state said only 10% of the population had type B blood.

Eventually, Yarris was convicted and sentenced to death. His case was considered three times by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and federal courts in Pennsylvania before DNA testing excluded him.

Last summer, a federal district court judge in Philadelphia ordered a new trial for Yarris, as prosecutors said it was possible that Yarris might have participated in the crime while not being the primary perpetrator.

After the Delaware County district attorney reviewed all the evidence, however, prosecutors concluded that there was no basis to retry Yarris.

The DNA tests “refuted the theory that he was tried under -- that he had abducted, kidnapped, raped and murdered her,” Kovach said.

Yarris will not be released from prison immediately. Three years after being convicted of killing Craig, he escaped while en route to a court hearing, fled to Florida and committed a robbery and other crimes there before being recaptured in Orlando.

Kovach said he thought that Yarris would be given credit for time served on his sentence for the escape. But Yarris still faces a sentence of 35 years for the crimes in Florida.

Had Yarris not been sentenced as an escaped murderer, the maximum sentence in Florida for his crime would have been eight years, said Rowley. Defense lawyers have filed in Florida to have the sentence recalculated, she said, expressing hope that Yarris would be home for Christmas.