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Nick Yarris
Yarris in 2023
Born
Nicholas James Yarris

(1961-05-18) May 18, 1961 (age 63)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationWriter

Nicholas James Yarris (born May 18, 1961) is an American writer and storyteller who spent 22 years on death row in Pennsylvania after being wrongfully convicted of rape and murder.[1]

Prosecution, conviction, and exoneration

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Although disputed by some family members, Yarris has stated he was the victim of sexual abuse as a child at the hands of another youth, which led him into addiction to alcohol, drugs and the commission of petty crime in his teens.[2] On December 21, 1981, Yarris and a friend stole a car. Yarris, then age 20, was blasting music while driving under the influence when he was stopped by police in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.[2] The officer and Yarris got into a physical confrontation, and the policeman's gun discharged. Yarris was charged with the kidnapping and attempted murder of a police officer. He was later tried and acquitted of those charges.[3]

While in jail, facing a possible sentence of life in prison, he spotted a newspaper article about the December 16, 1981, murder and rape of Linda Mae Craig, who had been abducted from a Delaware shopping center but whose body had been found in Pennsylvania. Her true murderer is still unknown. In an effort to win favor with the authorities and avoid the consequences of his pending charges, Yarris claimed that he knew who had committed the unsolved rape-murder. When the man he named, whom he had wrongly believed to be recently deceased, proved upon investigation to be plainly uninvolved, Yarris became the number-one suspect.[4][5]

Yarris was then charged with the abduction, rape and murder of Craig.[2] After a short jury trial, Yarris was found guilty. In July 1982, at age 21, he was sentenced to death.[6] Yarris escaped from custody while being transported to a post-sentence hearing, but was arrested in Florida about a month later, where he identified himself. Florida authorities agreed to return him to Pennsylvania's death row.[7] Numerous appeals and post-conviction challenges proved unavailing. During his time in prison, Yarris taught himself to read, married a prison volunteer visitor, and became the first death row prisoner to seek DNA testing.[8][9] In 2003, with the aid of a team of court-appointed lawyers (including Christina Swarns,[10] later to become Executive Director of the national Innocence Project[11]), a third round of DNA testing (following prior inconclusive efforts) proved that two unidentified men, not Yarris, had committed the crime.[12][13] In January 2004, after clearing the escape-related charges, he was released.[1]

Post-exoneration activities, lawsuit, and personal life

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Following his exoneration and release, Yarris protested once a week outside the District Attorney's Office, demanding that the DNA samples be submitted to the FBI database to find Craig's real rapists and killers.[14] Yarris sued the Delaware County District Attorney's Office in federal court for malicious prosecution, and the case eventually settled for $4 million in 2008.[15][16]

In 2005, Yarris moved to the UK, where he worked with Reprieve, married and had a daughter.[16] (He had eventually divorced the prison visitor-volunteer who married him while he was incarcerated.[9]) Following a second divorce, he married his third wife, also from the UK.[17] The couple then moved back to the United States. Following another divorce, Yarris returned to the UK and married for a fourth time, moving from Somerset to Oregon.[18] The couple separated in February 2021.

Writings

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Yarris is the author of the death row memoir Seven Days to Live (2008) (later reissued as The Fear of 13).[19][20] He has also self-published books titled The Kindness Approach (2017),[21] My Journey Through Her Eyes (2017), Monsters and Madmen (2018) (experiences on death row at the since-decommissioned SCI Pittsburgh), and Mind Your Heart, Nick Yarris (2024) (a memoir of the 20 years since his exoneration).[22]

Film, stage, online and television coverage

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Yarris is one of the exonerees profiled in the award-winning documentary, After Innocence (2005).[23] He is also the subject and protagonist-narrator of David Sington's documentary The Fear of 13 released in 2015.[2][24][25] Another documentary, featuring Yarris and two other exonerees, titled Life After Death, directed by Lior Geller, was in post-production as of 2024.[26] Yarris appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience on September 11, 2018, talking at length about his life story.[27] The Yarris case was explored in a two-part interview for the December 11, 2019 episode (Season 9) of the podcast, Wrongful Conviction with Jason Flom,[28] and was the subject of the June 17, 2019 episode of CNN/HLN's Death Row Stories, "A Prison of His Own" (Season 4, Episode 3).[29] An extended interview, edited to highlight Yarris's talent as a first-person storyteller, appeared in February 2023 on filmmaker and photographer Mark Laita's widely-watched YouTube channel, Soft White Underbelly.[30] A stage play based on the Sington documentary, written by Lindsey Ferrentino and starring Adrien Brody as Yarris, opened in October 2024 at the Donmar Warehouse in London.[31][32]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Nicholas Yarris". National Registry of Exonerations. University of Michigan. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d The Fear of 13 (Documentary). United Kingdom. 2015.
  3. ^ Yarris v. County of Delaware, et al., 465 F.3d 129, 132 (3d Cir. Oct. 2, 2006).
  4. ^ Cassell, Paul (2018). "Overstating America's Wrongful Conviction Rate? Reassessing the Conventional Wisdom About the Prevalence of Wrongful Convictions". Arizona Law Review. 60: 815, 830–831.
  5. ^ Machell, Ben (12 November 2016). "I spent 22 years on Death Row - I was innocent". The Times (72066). The Times Magazine: 34–69. ISSN 0140-0460.
  6. ^ "Death Penalty: Nicholas Yarris spent 22 years on death row for a murder he didn't commit". The Times Herald. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  7. ^ "John M. Roman, retired Daily Times reporter, dies at 73". Delaware County Daily Times. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  8. ^ Taylor, Lynda Guydon (17 September 1990). "Wife seeks inmate's freedom: condemned man wants DNA test". Pittsburgh Press-Gazette. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  9. ^ a b Yarris, Nicholas (2008). The Fear of 13 (originally titled 'Seven Days to Live') (paperback 2017 ed.). Arrow. ISBN 978-1784756451.
  10. ^ Bouza, Teresa; Burgos, Annalisa; Demian, Sinziana. "Life After Exoneration (video documentary)". 2004 Master's Projects - Graduate School of Journalism. Columbia University Libraries. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  11. ^ "Staff". The Innocence Project. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  12. ^ Nash, Cindi (10 December 2003). "DNA evidence exonerates death-row inmate". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  13. ^ Cacciottolo, Mario (2016-11-16). "Nick Yarris: 'How I survived 22 years on death row'". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  14. ^ Smith, Meggan (Spring 2007). "Have We Abandoned the Innocent? Society's Debt to the Wrongly Convicted". Criminal Law Brief. 2 (2). American University, Washington College of Law: 3, 11. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  15. ^ Hall, Peter (2014-10-04). "State gives no money to people wrongly convicted". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  16. ^ a b Farr, Stephanie; Bender, William (10 January 2008). "Freed by DNA, paid by Delco". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  17. ^ "'He has more baggage than an airport ... but I love him'". SWNS. South West News Service Ltd. 4 April 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  18. ^ "Innocent man Nick Yarris on Death Row: 'I screwed up my life with a lie'". nzherald.co.nz. NZME Publishing Ltd. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  19. ^ "Archives - Philly.com". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2016-11-16.
  20. ^ Halliday, Josh (2013-03-12). "HarperCollins sued by former death row prisoner over ditched book". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  21. ^ "Interview with Nick Yarris who Wrongly Spent 22 Years on Death Row". Crime + Investigation. 2018-08-07. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  22. ^ "My Books: The Unfiltered Truth". Nicholas J. Yarris. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  23. ^ "After Innocence". Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  24. ^ "The Fear of 13 (2015)". Watchdocumentaries. 9 October 2015. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  25. ^ Costakes, Ariana (August 18, 2016). "Death Row Exoneree Nick Yarris Speaks About Fear of 13, the Documentary Recounting His Wrongful Conviction". Innocence Project: News. Innocence Project. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  26. ^ "Life After Death". IMDB. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  27. ^ "- YouTube". YouTube.
  28. ^ Flom, Jason. "Wrongful Conviction, Season 9". With Jason Flom. Lava for Good. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  29. ^ "A Prison of His Own (June 17, 2019)". YouTube. Death Row Stories. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  30. ^ Laita, Mark. "Wrongfully Convicted Death Row Inmate - Nick Yarris". Soft White Underbelly. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  31. ^ McIntosh, Steven (24 June 2024). "Oscar winner Brody set for first London stage role". BBC. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  32. ^ "THE FEAR OF 13 by Lindsey Ferrentino". Donmar. Donmar Warehouse Projects. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
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