They’ve been in prison for 20 years, convicted of murdering a 70-year-old Chester woman. Now a decision on their request for a retrial is at least three months away, writes Jese Bunch for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

A judge will decide if new DNA evidence clears Samuel Grasty, 46, Derrick Chappell, 41, and Morton Johnson, 42, in the 1997 murder of Henretta Nickens.

Grasty’s cousin Mahir Sharif and other family members said it’s always an emotional experience when Grasty, Chappell, and Johnson appear in Delaware County’s Court of Common Pleas.

The trio was convicted and essentially given a life sentence when they were only teenagers.

“It’s been a long agonizing process,” Sharif said. “From the beginning, we always said that they were innocent. We tried to do everything we could to prove that. It’s hurtful — our family’s been hurting for years.”

Deciding on the retrial will be Judge Mary Alice Brennan as part of an appeals process that began nearly a decade ago.

Lawyers for the three men argue that DNA found at the murder scene does not match any of the three men and that Nickens was raped and assaulted by a single unknown perpetrator.

Read more about a possible retrial in The Philadelphia Inquirer.