NEW YORK (AP) — For 16 years, a suburban New York prosecutor insisted he had the right man for the infamous 1996 double murder. The office tried him five times, through a series of hung juries and overturned convictions. before eventually being acquitted and released in 2017.
On Monday, the office's current leader, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah, said a new investigation has identified two suspects and found “no connection” to the man her predecessors tried and re-tried in the death of Archie Harris , 79, and home care aide Betty Ramcharan. 35.
The statement appears to mark the first time that prosecutors have publicly said the blame lies with someone other than Selwyn Days, the man jurors ultimately acquitted in 2017. At the time, prosecutors said they were disappointed in the verdict.
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Days' attorney, Glenn Garber, said Monday that it is time for his client to be vindicated.
“He is truly innocent, and it is important to fully put this case to rest,” Garber said, adding that the public is also entitled “to a fair and just closure to this horrific case.”
Rocah took office in 2021 and was not working in the district attorney's office when it prosecuted Days. She gave no details about the two people she described as “involved” in the killings, saying the investigation was ongoing.
Her office said the developments were so recent that more work needed to be done before any possible future steps could be taken. Rocah doesn't have time to do that work; she is leaving office this week after deciding not to run for a second term.
“I hope these important developments lead to continued investigation and action so that justice can be achieved for the families of Mr. Harris and Ms. Ramcharan,” she said in a statement on Monday.
New District Attorney Susan Cacace then promised to “continue reviewing cases like this double homicide.” Both she and Rocah are Democrats.
Garber said he was confident Cacace's government would charge and punish those actually responsible for the killings.
Harris, 79, was a recently widowed millionaire who was known in his neighborhood for bragging about keeping a lot of cash in his Eastchester home — and was known to police for criminal complaints from the aides who cared for him. He was accused of forcing an assistant — Days' mother — to perform a sex act, and pointing a gun at a second aide.
Yet he was found to have left all but $19,000 of his estate to Ramcharan, without making provision for his three children. However, her share ultimately went to his family, as Ramcharan died along with him on November 21, 1996.
More than five years later, authorities charged Day. He gave police a video confession that his lawyers later claimed was false and coerced.
“I didn't commit this crime. I don't know who did… I don't know anything about it,” Days told a judge in 2004.
Hung juries ended Days' first and third trials. His second and fourth trials resulted in murder convictions and 50-year prison sentences. Both convictions were quashed.
By the time he was acquitted at his fifth trial, he had spent sixteen years behind bars.
Rocah established a Conviction Review Unit in 2021 to investigate wrongful conviction claims. The unit began investigating the Harris and Ramcharan case last year.
Contact information for Ramcharan and Harris' family members could not immediately be found Monday.
