Group working to get justice for these three men

Pennsylvania Innocence Project lawyers now are fighting to free three men they contend are innocent. Here's a look at their cases:

* Marshall Hale. Convicted in 1984 of raping a North Philly 14-year-old, Hale was sentenced to up to 47 years in prison. Although the victim identified Hale at trial as her attacker, tests showed that Hale has a different blood type from the rapist, ruling him out as the attacker, his attorneys argue. Although Hale requested a DNA test to prove his innocence, police say the biological evidence in Hale's case has been lost or destroyed.

* Tyrone Jones. Jones was 16 when two gunmen shot gang member Henry Harrison, 17, to death in North Philly in May 1973. An hour after the slaying, police seeking a man with a red skullcap arrested Jones, wearing a red skullcap, outside his home nine blocks away. Although Jones confessed to the crime and surrendered the .25-caliber gun he said he fired at Harrison, ballistics tests excluded him as the killer because they showed Harrison was shot with a .22-caliber gun.

* Greg Brown. Brown was 17 when three firefighters died in a 1995 house blaze that investigators declared an arson. A neighbor told authorities he saw Brown outside the house before the fire and a roommate of Brown reported that Brown confessed the crime to him. Brown was convicted and is serving three life sentences. But since the trial, Pittsburgh journalists reported that the two witnesses had been paid a combined $1,500 for their testimony. Further, a fire expert who reviewed the case contends the fire resulted from a natural-gas leak, not arson.

- Dana DiFilippo