Bump and Update: Latest news on the case is here and here. It's even news in Australia [via How Appealing].

Peter Goldberger, the ever modest defense attorney, writes in to say:

At least equal credit for this success should go to the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Court Division, Defender Association of Philadelphia, my fabulous co-counsel, led by Michael Wiseman and including Christina Swarns, who recently left Philadelphia for NYC to head the criminal justice programs of the NAACP Legal Defense and Eduction Fund (once headed by Thurgood Marshall).

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Original Post 1/17 12:06 am:

At about 12:30 pm Friday, 1/16/04, Nicholas Yarris, age 42, walked out of the State Correctional Institution at Greene County, PA, to the arms of his parents, after 22 years on Pennsylvania's death row. DNA testing in the spring of 2003 confirmed that he was wrongly convicted. Pa murder and rape charges were dropped in September. In December the local DA's office conceded that there was insufficient evidence to support a retrial.

This week, the Orange County, Florida DA's office conceded that the 30 year sentence for robbery he picked up while briefly on escape status in 1985 should be reduced to 7 years, long since served. A Florida judge order the Florida sentence reduced yesterday and agreed that he need not be extradited from Pennsylvania to Florida to effectuate that reduction. After some last minute paperwork frustration due to slow-moving bureaucracy in the Florida Dept of Corrections, he went free at midday Friday.

Once again, kudos to Peter Goldberger of Ardmore, PA, who represented the indigent Mr. Yarris for the past ten years. For more on the case, see our coverage here.