A new round of DNA testing exonerates a homeless man who has spent nearly four decades in prison for the killing of a Santa Ana nanny, according to defense attorneys who are asking Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer to declare Kenneth Clair innocent of the 1984 slaying.

Clair, who spent years on death row before an appellate court overturned his death sentence and he was re-sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, has always denied killing 25-year-old Linda Faye Rodgers. A viral social media campaign — including a new trial petition that drew more than 160,000 signatures — turned his case into a cause celebre.

Rodgers was found bludgeoned, stabbed and strangled in the master bedroom of a Santa Ana house where she worked. Her child, and four others, were sleeping in

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