Georgia

Wrongly convicted inmate freed by DNA

A man wrongly convicted of rape, kidnapping and robbery was freed Tuesday after 17 years in prison — exonerated by a new test of DNA evidence and “unusually” helpful prosecutors.

Clarence Harrison, sentenced to life in prison in 1987 on charges of sexually assaulting a hospital worker, walked out of a courthouse in Decatur surrounded by ecstatic friends and family.

“I think I had given up years ago,” the 44-year-old Harrison said. “I think God just carried me on through it.”

The Georgia Innocence Project, which represented Harrison, said it usually runs into road blocks when working with prosecutors, but DeKalb County prosecutors were “unusually” helpful with Harrison’s case, group director Aimee Maxwell said.

After Harrison asked the group for help last year, the district attorney’s office found evidence stashed in an old box and sent it to a lab for DNA testing. The new test confirmed Harrison was not guilty of the 1986 attack.

Salt Lake City

Suspect competent for kidnapping trial

A judge on Tuesday found the homeless man charged with kidnapping Elizabeth Smart competent to stand trial.

The ruling came at the start of what had been expected to be a three-day hearing to gauge the mental state of Brian Mitchell, 50.

Salt Lake County Dist. Atty. David Yocom said he and Mitchell’s attorney, Kim Clark, had been in negotiations over waiving the hearing.

Clark said at the hearing that it was a “tactical decision” the defense reached after a judge ruled the competency proceedings would be open. The defense had sought to close the hearing.

Two court-appointed experts apparently could not agree on the issue of his competency. Both evaluators did agree he suffers from a narcissistic delusion. Mitchell, who describes himself as a prophet, had refused to cooperate with them.

Kentucky

Coal miners protest bankruptcy laws

Hundreds of coal miners marched Tuesday through downtown Lexington to protest a federal bankruptcy ruling that will cause thousands of retired coal workers to lose their medical coverage. Seventeen people were arrested.

“You can’t live in coalfield country without knowing someone who died energizing this nation,” said Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America and one of those arrested. “We’re not asking for handouts. We’ve earned everything we’ve got coming to us.”

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William Howard ruled Aug. 9 that Horizon Natural Resources, the nation’s fourth-largest coal company, does not have to abide by labor contracts protecting benefits for 1,000 active miners and about 2,300 retirees, including some sick from black lung disease.

The UMWA plans to appeal Howard’s decision.

Nova Scotia

Trapped whale resists rescue efforts

A humpback whale trapped for more than a week behind a hydroelectric dam refused the latest attempt to lure him back to the ocean.

Whale rescuers used the recorded sounds of feeding humpbacks to try to coax the 16 1/2 ton animal through the sluice gates that separate the Annapolis River from the Atlantic Ocean at Annapolis Royal.

After following the sound for about 2.5 miles, the animal swam to within 115 feet of the Annapolis Royal Tidal Generating Station before halting Monday afternoon.

Canadian fisheries officers say the ample supply of fish in the Annapolis River is probably keeping the 20-foot-long whale from heading for open water.

The power plant has been shut down since the whale arrived.