Friday, January 11, 2008

The Yarris fallout

It turns out not everyone is thrilled with the multi-million dollar settlement reached in the Nick Yarris case.

One of those would be Dennis C. McAndrews. He knows a little something about the case.

McAndrews is a former county prosecutor and he handled the appeals end of the case, after Yarris was convicted and sent to death row, where he would spend the next 22 years seeking to clear his name.

Eventually DNA testing proved the evidence found on items belonging to the victim, Linda May Craig, did not match Yarris.

On Wednesday Yarris announced he has settled his malicious prosecution suit against a slew of county officials for several million dollars.

That wouldn’t have been the case if McAndrews had his way. He makes no bones about disagreeing with the decision and makes it clear, as do current county officials, that the move was made by the county’s insurance company. The county actually doesn’t have a say in the matter. If the insurance company wants to settle, they can. And they did. And McAndrews is not a bit happy about it.

He raps the move as “a business decision, which involved considerations other than the merits of the case.”

And that’s not all. McAndrews still believes in that case, the one that sent Yarris to death row in the first place.

“The facts introduced at the criminal trial supported Yarris’ convictions and the unanimous affirmance of that conviction by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, whose description of the evidence against Yarris is public record and is fully available,” he said.

McAndrews hints at something else that has been lurking around this case for years. He seems to believe that if Yarris was not the killer, he knows something about it and should not be exonerated from possible participation in the event.
McAndrews says he would have liked to haven taken the case back into a courtroom.
He’s not alone.

Linda May Craig’s son is not yet ready to exonerate Yarris either. Arthur L. Craig spoke with our John Roman Thursday, and he also made it clear he does not think the settlement exonerates Yarris. His father, Linda May Craig’s husband, died several years ago.

Arthur Craig moved away from the area several years ago to get away from the “bad memories.”

A mother brutally murdered. A suspect who spent 22 years on death row, until DNA testing cleared him in the case. A former prosecutor as well as several county officials who disagree with the settlement – for millions – of the lawsuit that suspect filed against the county. And a family member still looking for closure.
Seems like there’s no shortage of bad memories involving this case.

And one more. The person responsible for killing Linda May Craig is still out there, having never been brought to justice.

1 Comments:

Blogger Franny Ward said...

"McAndrews hints at something else that has been lurking around this case for years. He seems to believe that if Yarris was not the killer, he knows something about it and should not be exonerated from possible participation in the event.

Mr.Yarris has all that money now. If I were in law enforcement, I'd pay close attention to any monetary wire transfers from "across the pond".

January 14, 2008 6:17 AM 

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