[Vision2020] DNA exonerates one more on death row

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

All Charges Dropped Against NJ Man Who Once Faced the Death Penalty  
  
Prosecutors in New Jersey announced that they were dropping all charges against Larry Peterson who had been convicted of murder in 1989, saying they could no longer meet their burden of proof in his case.  Peterson's conviction was overturned last year after DNA tests failed to match him with evidence from the scene of the crime.  The state had initially sought the death penalty against Peterson, who is now 55 after spending 18 years in prison.   The Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School in New York and state prosecutors had dozens of DNA samples from hairs and elsewhere at the crime scene tested in the case. None matched Peterson's genetic makeup.  New Jersey currently has a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty while a commission studies the process.  (Associated Press, May 26, 2006).