DNA evidence frees 2 men after decades in prison

Two men wrongly convicted for a triple murder have been freed after spending more than two decades in prison. A judge overturned their convictions based on new DNA evidence.

Anthony Yarbough and Sharrif Wilson were released earlier this week, and prosecutors said it would be unjust to try them again.

They were accused of killing Yarbough's mother, his 12-year-old sister and his cousin in 1992. The victims were found strangled in their Coney Island home, which authorities said was a crack den.

The men’s release came days after a report was released showing that a record number of exonerations were recorded in the United States in 2013.

The total of 87 exonerations last year surpassed that of the previous high in 2009, when 83 people were cleared of convictions, according to the report by the National Registry of Exonerations, a body that was launched in 2012 as a joint project by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law.

The most noticeable trend was a rise in exonerations for non-violent crimes.  But violent crimes, such as murder and sexual assault, still account for the majority of exonerations every year. 

Researchers said that is because violent crime cases carry more severe sentences and are often more high-profile, attracting greater media attention.

They also said the findings reflect long-term trends that indicate that the judiciary is increasingly willing to consider and act on the types of innocence claims that are often ignored, such as those involving light sentences and in cases where defendants have accepted a plea bargain. 

Al Jazeera and the Associated Press