Attorneys in Missouri and Pennsylvania will reveal two separate exonerations from their death rows. In Pennsylvania, attorneys for Nicholas James Yarris will announce in a press conference today (July 28, 2003) that three separate DNA tests exclude Yarris from the rape and murder for which he was convicted. Yarris, 41, has spent 21 years on Pennsylvania’s death row, and has always maintained his innocence.
Joseph Amrine, who has spent the past 17 years on Missouri’s death row, had all charges dropped and will walk away a free man today. Witness testimony against Amrine was particulalry suspect, coming from jailhouse informants and prison guards not directly involved in the incident for which Amrine was tried. While Joseph Amrine is now free, Yarris will have to wait for the prosecutor’s office to officially drop charges. The state does not dispute the DNA results.
Click Here to read the Yarris Press Release. Click Here for a summary of the Joseph Amrine case. See Also Innocence.