Derrick Chappell, Morton Johnson, and Samuel Grasty hope new DNA evidence shows an unidentified person killed Henrietta Nickens, not them, back in October 1997, writes Michael Levenson for The New York Times.

The three men, who were 15, 17, and 20 at the time, have spent half their lives in prison after being convicted of the murder of the 70-year-old woman in Chester.

On Tuesday, the three men asked Delaware County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mary Alice Brennan to overturn their convictions.

The judge’s ruling is pending.

“We now have conclusive proof that a single perpetrator, who was likely drug-fueled, sexually assaulted and murdered Henrietta Nickens,” Nilam A. Sanghvi and John M. Lyons, lawyers for Chappell, wrote in court filings.

Investigators found DNA from semen at the murder scene from an unknown man that did not belong to Chappell, Johnson or Grasty, but with no explanation for the male DNA, prosecutors “quietly dropped rape and sexual assault charges” in the case, and labeled the unknown DNA a “mystery”, lawyers for Chappell wrote.

Additional 2021 DNA tests show DNA from an unknown man on Nicksen’s bedding, on a green jacket, a chewed straw in the jacket pocket, and with a baggie containing cocaine residue.

Read more about efforts to overturn a conviction with DNA evidence in a Chester murder in The New York Times.