Man Who Survived 22 Years On Death Row Talks About His Experience

Stabbed, strangled and savagely beaten. All for a crime that he didn't commit. After 22 years in solitary confinement, Nick Yarris was released from death row - thankfully having never met his maker.

He considers himself 'extremely lucky', despite previously asking the judge if he could be put to death.

Yarris, convicted as a rapist and murderer, finally walked free as the innocent man he always knew he was.

"I faced the death penalty but got out, acclimatised to society, overcame Hepatitis C, and went to stand next to some of the most brilliant actors in the world performing in the Colosseum in Rome," he told metro.co.uk.

He's now heading to Los Angeles to film a biopic of his life, following the Netflix documentary The Fear Of 13 and the book by the same title.

"Guess what? There are 160 other men who have been proven innocent off death row. Not all of them are getting the same play," he adds.

"A lot of them go and die in abstract, terrible ways and they don't get anything."

He was sentenced in 1981, for the rape and murder of Linda Mae Craig, confined to a cell for 23 hours per day.

In those 23 hours, Yarris read around 9,400 books as he educated himself about the law so he could prove his lack of guilt.

"I was showing them an unbelievable brilliance beyond what they would expect," Yarris said. "When they imagine someone on death row, they think of some terrible loser guy, who isn't going to have anything to say.