Former inmate to get millions

A former death-row inmate who spent 22 years in prison before long-sought DNA tests exonerated him of a 1981 murder and rape has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Delaware County, where he was prosecuted.

Nicholas Yarris spent 8,057 days awaiting execution before he was released four years ago this month. He was the first from Pennsylvania's death row to be cleared by DNA tests.

"For the first time in my life, since 1981, I am finally free," said Yarris, now 46, in a telephone interview yesterday from England, where he now lives.

Yarris said he would treat his parents - Mike and Jayne Yarris of Southwest Philadelphia - to a Las Vegas vacation, but reserve the rest of the money for his daughter, Lara Rebecca, who is 21 months old.

"All I am doing with the money is securing my daughter's future," said Yarris, who said he celebrated the settlement in a very low-key manner - with a heaping bowl of ice cream.

Neither Yarris nor his lawyer, John W. Beavers, would disclose the amount of the settlement, though both said it was substantial.

The settlement was the result of a malicious-prosecution lawsuit Yarris filed in 2004 against Delaware County and the law enforcement officials who investigated and prosecuted him, and it came as the case was moving closer to trial in U.S. District Court.

Beavers said county representatives agreed to inform the family of murder victim Linda Mae Craig that "no probable cause existed to believe Nick Yarris had anything to do with her death."

For Yarris, the settlement brings to an end more than a quarter-century of dealings with the legal system - starting with his 1982 trial, then through all of the years of appeals until his release, finally ending with the settlement of the civil case.

"It was very, very difficult, but now it seems like it all came full circle - all because I stayed positive," said Yarris, who has written a book,

Seven Days to Live My Life

, that will be published in July, and is working on a movie deal.

Some of those involved in the 1982 prosecution said yesterday that they were not happy about the settlement.

"The settlement in this case was made, over my strenuous objection, by the insurance carrier without the consent or approval of those who prosecuted this case," said lawyer Dennis McAndrews, who as an assistant Delaware County district attorney helped prosecute Yarris. "We believe that a civil jury should have decided this lawsuit."

McAndrews said that the county's insurance carrier "made a business decision" to settle, and that the evidence introduced at Yarris' trial supported the conviction. In his view, McAndrews said, the DNA evidence "does not exonerate" Yarris at all.

Yarris was convicted by a Delaware County jury in 1982 of the kidnapping, murder and rape of Craig, of Boothwyn, who was abducted as she was leaving her job at the Tri-State Mall in Claymont, Del., in December 1981.

Craig, 32 and a mother of three, was reported missing by her husband early on the night of Dec. 15, 1981. Her bloody automobile was found that night in Delaware County, and her body was discovered later in a snow-covered parking lot about a mile away in Upper Chichester.

Yarris drew attention to himself in the case. In January 1982, he was in Delaware County Prison on unrelated charges and claimed to have information about the murder. He later said that he knew nothing about the killing except what he had read in a newspaper, and that he had been undergoing drug withdrawal and was doing whatever he could to be released or get better treatment in prison.

During the trial, the prosecution showed that Yarris had the same B-positive blood type as the murderer, and introduced witnesses - a prison guard and an inmate - who testified that he made incriminating statements to them while behind bars.

From death row, he spent most of his time trying to use the evolving science of DNA testing to prove his innocence. His conviction ultimately was overturned in 2003.

After his release in 2004, Yarris filed the lawsuit, seeking $22 million. He contended that officials in the Delaware County District Attorney's Office withheld key evidence during the trial and later sought to sabotage his bid for DNA testing.

The suit contended that a pair of men's gloves found in Craig's car was withheld from his defense team, even though the prosecution believed they belonged to the murderer.

When the gloves were finally analyzed, the tests found nothing that matched Yarris' DNA. In addition, DNA evidence recovered from Craig's body also showed that Yarris was not the rapist or killer.

Yarris said that as horrible as those 22 years on death row were, he was not bitter, and that his life had turned around in many wonderful and remarkable ways. He moved to England after his release, got married, and is now a stay-at-home dad for his daughter.

But in the months after his release, he struggled. He said that when he emerged from prison, he felt as though he had been in a "time warp" and seemed very much like the 20-year-old he was when he entered.

Yesterday, he said that he had just finished his book shortly before Christmas when he got an e-mail from Craig's son, Art. In it, Yarris recalled, Art Craig wrote that "time is the most precious thing" and wished him well. (Craig could not be reached for comment.) Yarris said he took the e-mail as an acknowledgment that Craig realized he was not involved in his mother's death.

At that moment, Yarris said, he decided it was time to settle the lawsuit.