UNBELIEVABLE GOVERNMENT VINDICTIVENESS TOWARDS AN INNOCENT MAN

It's clear that the real guilt lies with Pennsylvania government agencies and that is the problem

From his cell in Burlington County Jail, Larry Peterson sounds hopeful and determined. Hopeful that the justice system will at long last grant his freedom soon, and determined to clear his name. "They started this fight," Peterson said of prosecutors who arrested him for murder in 1987. "By them taking all this time out of my life, a fight they will get. This is supposed to be about justice."

Peterson, 54, has been behind bars since September 1987 for the rape and murder of Jacqueline Harrison in Pemberton Township. A jury convicted him in 1989 and nearly gave him the death penalty. Since 1994, Peterson has been trying to prove his innocence scientifically, through DNA testing. A court finally granted him the right to DNA testing in December 2003. The results came back last February, and clearly show that Peterson did not commit this crime. Sperm on the victim's clothing, which prosecutors said belonged to Peterson, actually came from the victim's boyfriend. Sperm in her body came from an "unknown male" - the real killer - whose skin also was found under the victim's fingernails. None of this genetic material came from Peterson. Hairs taken from the crime scene, which prosecutors had said matched Peterson's hair, instead all belonged to the victim.

Last month, a Burlington County judge finally overturned Peterson's conviction. But Peterson is still sitting in jail while his mother tries to raise $20,000 to post the required amount of his $200,000 bail. That's because Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi intends to compound this miscarriage of justice by trying Peterson again for murder. "They know that I didn't commit this," Peterson said in an interview this week. "Now that my innocence has been proven, they're going to extremes to try to cover up what they did. They know they framed me."

Bernardi has said he won't try this case in the media. But it seems like a good forum, considering the bang-up job that Bernardi's predecessors did in court in 1989. If he persists in this misguided second prosecution, Bernardi's case will rest largely on four witnesses who testified that Peterson admitted killing a woman. All of their stories have serious weaknesses. One man was a jailhouse snitch. The second witness was considered a suspect himself in the murder. The third man initially told investigators that Peterson had spoken of fighting with a man, not a woman. The fourth witness did not implicate Peterson at all when investigators first interviewed him.

There's a chance Peterson will be released on bail this weekend. The world outside jail is where he should stay. The prosecutor - not another jury - has a responsibility to look at the facts and the flaws and decide against another trial. The interests of justice demand it.

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