Countdown to Wrongful Conviction Day: Friday, October 2, 2105; 27 days. For information: http://www.aidwyc.org/wcd-2015/
"The
next chapter of Selwyn Days' legal saga could feature a fifth trial for
two 1996 Eastchester murders after his latest conviction was overturned
by a state appellate court on Wednesday. The Mount Vernon man
continues to fight for his freedom after being found guilty of killing
79-year-old millionaire Archie Harris and his 35-year-old home health
aide, Betty Ramcharan. He claims he's innocent. The Appellate
Division, Second Judicial Department, reversed the Dec. 20, 2011
conviction based on Days' appeal that he was not allowed to introduce
expert testimony on the issue of false confessions, according to the
court's ruling. The case back to Westchester County Court for a new
trial, which would be his fifth in the case.........Days, a
career petty criminal, had accused Harris of sexually abusing his mother
four months before the real estate investor was killed. He became
a suspect after he was arrested for violating an order of protection
against his former girlfriend, who went to police later that day and
said that he had confessed the murders to her. He confessed to police
after a seven-hour interrogation and nearly 14 hours in custody,
according to the ruling......... The appellate court's decision Wednesday to overturn that conviction was
based on the Westchester County Court's decision in 2011 to bar expert
testimony on the issue of false confessions. The Westchester County
Court did not allow the expert testimony because it deemed the issue to
be "within the understanding of an average juror," according to the
appellate court. The expert testimony was relevant in Days' case,
though, according to the appellate court, which noted the lack of
physical evidence or eyewitness testimony linking Days to the murders,
as well as the videotaped confession, in which officers "repeatedly
employed suggestive and leading questions, fed the defendant specific
details related to the crime scene, and used rapport-building
techniques." The appellate court also said that "significant
concerns" were raised by the fact that only the last 75 minutes, the
confession, of the seven-hour interrogation were videotaped. Days'
two experts in false confessions, Dr. Jessica Pearson and Dr. Richard
A. Leo, had determined Days to be particularly vulnerable to false
confessions, based in part on his low intelligence and history of mental
illness, according to the ruling."
http://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2015/09/02/selwyn-days-conviction-overturned/71616194/