A Pennsylvania defendant is entitled to federal relief from his second-degree murder conviction due to insufficient evidence, the Third Circuit said Wednesday.

Marquis Rayner was convicted on the basis of his DNA being found on a t-shirt near the scene of the crime, close to a jar taken during the underlying robbery, the unpublished opinion by Judge Theodore A. McKee said. Fingerprints on the jar belonged to Rayner’s half-brother and co-defendant, Dominique Lee, McKee said.

• But there was no way to determine when Rayner’s DNA got on the shirt, and it could have been left at any time, the US …