Imagine being 42-years-old and having spent half of those years behind bars awaiting execution for the rape and murder of a mother of three in 1981. Imagine losing twenty-one years of your life without being able to spend time with your now 71-year-old mother. Then imagine a new technology is developed that without doubt proves your innocence of the crime for which you have lost half of your life. If you can imagine these scenarios you are luckier than Nicholas James Yarris, a man for who the above scenarios are the stuff of reality and not imagination.
In 1981, Nicholas James Yarris was arrested, tried, and convicted for the rape and murder of Linda Mae Craig Boothwyn, a mother of three who was allegedly abducted by him from the Tri-State Mall in Claymont, Delaware, (Fish 2004, 1). YarrisÆ conviction was overturned in 2003, after DNA evidence found on the victimÆs body exonerated him as the murderer. DNA testing was not available more than 20 years ago when Yarris was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to die for CraigÆs murder. YarrisÆ fate is not dissimilar to a number of other individuals on death row whose fates have been dramatically altered by DNA testing.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), Yarris is the first Pennsylvania death row inmate to be cleared by DNA evidence, because more than 112 other death row inmates have been exonerated due to DNA testing (Bowser 2003, 1). Though Yarris has been cleared of the rape and murder charges due to DNA testing, he has claimed innocence since his arrest. In 1985, he escaped while in the custody of sheriffÆs deputies, committing a series of burglaries that tacked more decades onto his sentence. However, according to the DPIC, ôauthorities recalculated sentences he received in Florida for crimes he committed after escaping,ö (Former 2004, 1).
The Florida State attorneyÆs offices in Orange and Osceola Counties recalculated h
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