Exoneration of Pennsylvania Death Row Prisoner Anticipated Tuesday; Death Penalty Moratorium Supporters to Hold Vigil at Courthouse

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT December 8, 2003 Jeff Garis
215.724.6120 or 267.251.2818

Exoneration of Pennsylvania death row prisoner anticipated Tuesday; Death penalty moratorium supporters to hold vigil at courthouse

MEDIA, PA -  After spending more than two decades on Pennsylvania's death row for a crime he did not commit, Nicholas Yarris will likely be formally exonerated on Tuesday, December 9th, when the Delaware County District Attorney's office is expected to announce that murder charges will be withdrawn.

Yarris, whose first-degree murder conviction and death sentence were overturned in September when DNA tests cleared him of the 1981 rape and murder of Linda May Craig, would move a step closer to freedom if prosecutors elect not to pursue a retrial.  Attorneys for Yarris have noted that there appears to be no evidence for which prosecutors could seek a new conviction and death sentence.  Yarris would become the 112th death row prisoner to be exonerated and released in the United States since 1973 and the tenth this year.

Proponents of a moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania will hold a vigil outside the Delaware County Courthouse, 201 West Front Street, at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, citing Yarris' case as yet another example of the state's severely flawed death penalty system.  Yarris would become the fifth death row prisoner in Pennsylvania to be exonerated and released since the death penalty was reinstated here in 1978, while three people have been executed in the state during the same time period.

"The death sentencing of an individual for a crime he didn't commit is one of the greatest nightmares facing a democratic society intent on clinging to the death penalty," said Jeff Garis, executive director of Pennsylvania Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty, an 8,000-member organization with chapters across the state.  "The fact that after 21 years Yarris was 'lucky' enough
to have this evidence discovered is by no means proof of 'the system working.'  The true killer has escaped justice, a young man's life was destroyed, and the limitations of our justice system have been exposed."

More than 250 organizations in Pennsylvania have issued moratorium resolutions in recent years, including the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, and the city councils of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie and seven other municipalities.  On March 4th, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System released a report recommending an immediate moratorium on executions, citing evidence of racial bias and the failure of the Commonwealth to ensure competent representation for indigent defendants.   With 232 people awaiting execution, Pa. has the
nation's fourth largest death row.

"There is overwhelming evidence that executions must stop until these kinds of errors are completely eliminated," Garis said.  "The vast majority of reasonable people - both for and against the death penalty - can agree that no executions should take place until we can be certain that there aren't other innocent people on death row.  It's time for Governor Rendell and the state
legislature to impose a moratorium on the death penalty."

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