ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A New York man who spent nearly 19 years behind bars for a 1988 slaying he didn’t commit has been cleared by DNA evidence and will go free.
A judge today vacated Frank Sterling’s conviction after prosecutors in Rochester, N.Y., agreed with Innocence Project lawyers that DNA from 74-year-old Viola Manville’s clothing excluded him as her killer.
The DNA evidence led instead to prison inmate Mark Christie. Christie strangled a 4-year-old girl in 1994, and prosecutors say he has now confessed to killing Manville.
The 46-year-old Sterling was serving 25 years to life. He confessed to the killing during an all-night interrogation in 1991, but later recanted.
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