An innocent man who survived 22 years in solitary confinement on death row has spoken out about living among some of America’s most dangerous criminals.
Nick Yarris was stabbed, strangled and beaten during his time at Huntingdon Prison in Pennsylvania after being wrongly sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Linda Mae Craig in 1981.
Mr Yarris said despite having spent most of his life inside prison, he feels “extremely lucky” that his conviction was overturned.
“Look at the physical features. I faced the death penalty but got out, acclimatised to society, overcame Hepatitis C, and went on to stand next to some of the most brilliant actors in the world performing in the Colosseum in Rome,” he told Metro.co.uk.
“Guess what? There are 160 other men who have been proven innocent off death row. Not all of them are getting the same play. A lot of them go and die in abstract, terrible ways and they don’t get anything.”
The 56-year-old also told how he dedicated himself to transforming his life inside a prison cell. He believes he read around 9,400 legal books to help him prove his innocence.
“When they imagine someone on death row they think of some terrible loser guy, who isn’t going to have anything to say,” he said. “I was showing them an unbelievable brilliance beyond what they would expect.”
Mr Yarris now campaigns against the death penalty and even objected to its use in the case of Ted Bundy, who was placed in a cell next to him for a time.
Bundy was put to death in 2012. His lawyer claimed he murdered more than 100 people.
“I think we’ve got to realise there’s a lot more you can do to somebody than put them to death,” Mr Yarris said.
“[Bundy] was insane. What’s the point of killing crazy people? The true definition of a crazy person is someone who repeats a pathological behaviour without a mind to be able to correct it.
“Well, that’s what he was doing. He couldn’t stop killing mummy. He hated mummy his whole life and he wanted to kill her over and over. So that’s a crazy person, that’s not some diabolical genius.”
Mr Yarris was eventually released from prison in 2004 after DNA proved his innocence. He has lived in the UK since 2005.
His case is now the subject of a Netflix documentary The Fear of 13 and his self-authored book by the same title.
