Yarris, the 1st death row inmate to be exonerated by...

Yarris, the 1st death row inmate to be exonerated by DNA evidence in Pennsylvania, was set free Friday after a long battle to prove he was innocent of the rape and murder of a suburban Philadelphia woman. Yarris' 1983 conviction was overturned on September 4, 2003, when DNA tests unavailable in the 1980s proved that genetic material found under the victim's fingernails, on her undergarments and in a pair of gloves worn by the killer belonged to another man. He remained jailed for months more - 1st while prosecutors decided whether to retry the case, and then while his lawyers sought a recalculation of prison terms he received in Florida for crimes he committed there as a fugitive after escaping from his jailers in 1985 while his murder case was on appeal (see also December 9, 2003). Yarris said he hopes to become a voice for the people he left behind on death row. He and his attorneys called for a moratorium on the death penalty Tuesday. Yarris said he is convinced that at least one other death row prisoner he served time with is innocent, and expressed little confidence in the system that imprisoned him for more than half his life.