the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office has dropped rape and murder charges...

the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office has dropped rape and murder charges against Larry Peterson, 55. He served 18 years in prison for the crime.
The charges against Peterson were dropped yesterday after the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office decided the evidence in the case could not bring a conviction at his retrial.
He was jailed a month after the crime and found guilty in 1989. He served 18 years behind bars before receiving a new trial and making bail last year.
Peterson was convicted for the Aug. 24, 1987 rape and murder of Jacqueline Harrison, 25.
The case was tried before DNA testing was permitted in New Jersey's criminal court system. With the help of the Innocence Project of New York, Peterson won court approval in December 2003 to have the biological evidence tested. The results came back in Peterson's favor, failing to place him at the crime and showing that hairs said to be his actually belonged to the victim. Semen was identified from a consensual sex partner Harrison had been with before she was killed.
A 2nd DNA profile was made from additional semen and scrapings from under Harrison's nails. That profile did not match anyone on file in law-enforcement databases. Find that person, and you've found the real killer, Peterson's attorneys have insisted. A judge threw out the charges against Peterson last year
In court papers this week, prosecutors said it would be problematic to use those same three witnesses, who had testified that Peterson confessed to them during a ride to work.