This just in via email from the National Coaliton to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP):

A Pennsylvania man today became the 112th person to be freed from death row because of factual innocence after prosecutors announced they are dropping charges against him.

Nicholas James Yarris, 41, has spent 21 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. He is Pennsylvania's fifth exoneree and the 10th of this year. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the ten people who have been freed from death row due to actual innocence in 2003 ties a record set in 1987, when ten people also were exonerated.

"The death penalty in America is not merely flawed; it is broken and beyond repair," said Brian Roberts, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "For every eight people that have been executed in this country during the past three decades, one person has been found to be actually innocent. The 112 people found to be innocent were not released due to what some might call a legal technicality - flawed jury instruction, for example - but because they actually did not do the crime."

In other death penalty news, on his last day in office, Kentucky Governor Paul Patton commuted the death penalty sentence of Kevin Stanford who was 17 at the time of his crime.

Update: Nicholas Yarris' attorney and frequent TalkLeft commenter Peter Goldberger, has represented Mr. Yarris in his bid for freedom for the past ten years. He sends in this link, and adds, "Neither the DA nor the judge offered even a kind word, much less an apology to Nick."