Post by CCADP on Aug 27, 2005 20:36:48 GMT -5
Conviction vacated with DNA after 18 years, man tastes freedom
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By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press Writer
August 27, 2005, 2:41 PM EDT
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. -- For 16 years, he was Larry Leroy Peterson, convicted killer.
Saturday, he was a free man.
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Nearly a month after a judge used DNA evidence to vacate his guilty verdict in a 1987 rape and murder, Peterson walked out of the Burlington County Jail.
He strode past a throng of reporters so he could hug his mother, who posted a $20,000 bond _ $7,000 of it from donations and $13,000 from a loan _ to gain his freedom.
"It's just good to be out here and breathe some fresh air," Peterson, 54, declared after the long embrace.
He is free, but not unburdened.
Prosecutors in Burlington County still say Peterson killed Jacqueline Harrison on Aug. 25, 1987, in Pemberton Township and intend to try him again. With his lawyers and a judge pushing the case quickly, a trial could begin within a few months. Peterson must return to the courthouse for a Sept. 19 status conference.
Peterson's case has been championed for eight years by the Innocence Project at the Cardozo School of Law in New York, which uses DNA evidence to try to free the wrongly convicted. He is the first New Jersey convict to have a conviction overturned because of DNA evidence.
On hand to greet him upon his release were his Innocence Project lawyer, some law students who have helped with his case, the pastor from his mother's Baptist church and a half-dozen anti-death penalty activists.
To some of his supporters, Peterson's case personifies problems with the death penalty. Though he was not sentenced to die, prosecutors sought to have him executed. However, the jury that convicted him in 1989 decided to spare his life.
Prosecutors concede that dozens of DNA tests performed on samples taken from the crime scene do not help their case, but still say they are right.
"There are additional witnesses that place Mr. Peterson at the scene and involved in the crime," First Assistant Burlington County Prosecutor Ray Milavsky said Friday. "It just really would not be appropriate to try the case in the media."
Lawyer Vanessa Potkin cut off questions to Peterson about the case that lies ahead. She said that about 30 percent of the 162 cases nationwide in which DNA has been used to exonerate convicts, prosecutors relied on "jailhouse snitches."
"While witnesses lie, DNA doesn't," she said.
Peterson left jail in a plaid shirt, jeans and sneakers, walking with a slow gait. He carried only a spare pair of jeans and a folder _ adorned with pictures of cars and motorcycles _ full of legal documents.
He said that after all he'd been through and the murder charge that remains, he isn't angry.
"I don't want to look back," he said. "I'm just trying to keep my head focused on what will be."
His immediate plan was a meal from KFC and his goal was to get a job, perhaps as a truck driver and maybe to have a chicken farm someday.
In the short term, he'll live with his mother and be required to check in with the jail by 4 p.m. every Monday, a condition of his bail.
A car enthusiast, Peterson will soon be able to be behind the wheel for the first time since the Reagan administration.
Eighteen years locked up did not mean he lost all contact with the outside world.
From a few dozen yards, he spotted a a brand-new car. "That's a 300C, no a 300L, a Chrysler," he proclaimed, correctly.
Then he helped his mother, Susie, into the driver's seat of her car and left the county complex.
Email this story
Printer friendly format
Top Stories
PPL says ash basin leak is plugged
More charges against accused rapist in Middlesex County
Ten accused of roles in black market drug ring
Conviction vacated with DNA after 18 years, man tastes freedom
Panel took on Rumsfeld, insists politics had no role in decisions
Enter a Category
View List
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press Writer
August 27, 2005, 2:41 PM EDT
MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. -- For 16 years, he was Larry Leroy Peterson, convicted killer.
Saturday, he was a free man.
advertisement
advertisement
Nearly a month after a judge used DNA evidence to vacate his guilty verdict in a 1987 rape and murder, Peterson walked out of the Burlington County Jail.
He strode past a throng of reporters so he could hug his mother, who posted a $20,000 bond _ $7,000 of it from donations and $13,000 from a loan _ to gain his freedom.
"It's just good to be out here and breathe some fresh air," Peterson, 54, declared after the long embrace.
He is free, but not unburdened.
Prosecutors in Burlington County still say Peterson killed Jacqueline Harrison on Aug. 25, 1987, in Pemberton Township and intend to try him again. With his lawyers and a judge pushing the case quickly, a trial could begin within a few months. Peterson must return to the courthouse for a Sept. 19 status conference.
Peterson's case has been championed for eight years by the Innocence Project at the Cardozo School of Law in New York, which uses DNA evidence to try to free the wrongly convicted. He is the first New Jersey convict to have a conviction overturned because of DNA evidence.
On hand to greet him upon his release were his Innocence Project lawyer, some law students who have helped with his case, the pastor from his mother's Baptist church and a half-dozen anti-death penalty activists.
To some of his supporters, Peterson's case personifies problems with the death penalty. Though he was not sentenced to die, prosecutors sought to have him executed. However, the jury that convicted him in 1989 decided to spare his life.
Prosecutors concede that dozens of DNA tests performed on samples taken from the crime scene do not help their case, but still say they are right.
"There are additional witnesses that place Mr. Peterson at the scene and involved in the crime," First Assistant Burlington County Prosecutor Ray Milavsky said Friday. "It just really would not be appropriate to try the case in the media."
Lawyer Vanessa Potkin cut off questions to Peterson about the case that lies ahead. She said that about 30 percent of the 162 cases nationwide in which DNA has been used to exonerate convicts, prosecutors relied on "jailhouse snitches."
"While witnesses lie, DNA doesn't," she said.
Peterson left jail in a plaid shirt, jeans and sneakers, walking with a slow gait. He carried only a spare pair of jeans and a folder _ adorned with pictures of cars and motorcycles _ full of legal documents.
He said that after all he'd been through and the murder charge that remains, he isn't angry.
"I don't want to look back," he said. "I'm just trying to keep my head focused on what will be."
His immediate plan was a meal from KFC and his goal was to get a job, perhaps as a truck driver and maybe to have a chicken farm someday.
In the short term, he'll live with his mother and be required to check in with the jail by 4 p.m. every Monday, a condition of his bail.
A car enthusiast, Peterson will soon be able to be behind the wheel for the first time since the Reagan administration.
Eighteen years locked up did not mean he lost all contact with the outside world.
From a few dozen yards, he spotted a a brand-new car. "That's a 300C, no a 300L, a Chrysler," he proclaimed, correctly.
Then he helped his mother, Susie, into the driver's seat of her car and left the county complex.