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The Innocence Project cleared 3 men of a rape and murder charge. DNA evidence matched Andrew Harris to the 1979 murder of Hattiesburg, MS resident Eva Gail Patterson. Harris was already serving a life sentence for a rape he was convicted of in 1981. Despite that the sole eyewitness stated there was one assailant and not three, Philip Bivens and Bobby Ray Dixon confessed and stated that Larry Ruffin was the rapist. In a prior interview, Dixon stated that the police "beat him and coerced him to testify". Larry Ruffin was the only one who went to trial, and also claimed the police beat him for his statement. Bivens will be released pending a Thursday hearing, Dixon is already out on medical release (he has advanced lung and brain cancer), and sadly Larry Ruffin died in prison in 2002. Read the full article.
