When police broke down Luis Diaz's front door to arrest the notorious Bird Road rapist, they found a wisp of a man — 5-foot-3 and 134 pounds.

Diaz was a startling contrast to the 6-foot, 200-pound attacker described by some of the victims of the rapes that paralyzed Miami in the late 1970s. Still, Diaz was hauled off in his pajamas, convicted and sent to prison in 1980.

In Jacksonville, 14 years later, prosecutors fingered Chad Heins in a different case — the stabbing murder of his pregnant sister-in-law. Even though crime scene evidence did not match, Heins was sentenced to life.

Today, Diaz (photo left) and Heins (right) are free, cleared by DNA evidence. Like Wilton Dedge and Alan Crotzer, they have become avatars of injustice in Florida. The state has apologized and paid Dedge and Crotzer more than $3-million combined. But the road is much less clear for Diaz and Heins despite a new law Gov. Charlie Crist says he will sign this month. (story here) AP photos.