MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A man who spent almost half of his life in prison for a rape he didn't commit is the first person ever exonerated through DNA evidence and then convicted of murder.

That's according to Eric Ferrero, spokesman of national Innocence Project, which works with three dozen similar organizations, including Wisconsin's Innocence Project.

The Wisconsin group convinced a judge to allow DNA testing that exonerated Steven Avery in 2003.

Yesterday, a Manitowoc County jury found him guilty of shooting photographer Teresa Halbach near his family's auto salvage lot in rural Manitowoc County in 2005.

Ferrero says Avery is only the second person to be convicted of a serious crime after being exonerated by DNA and the first to be convicted of killing someone.

He says it's an anomaly and they worked with dozens and dozens of wrongly convicted people who have rebuilt their lives.