NEW YORK (AP) — For 16 years, a suburban New York prosecutor’s office insisted it had the right man in a notorious 1996 double killing. The office tried him five times, through a series of hung juries and reversed convictions, before he was ultimately acquitted and freed in 2017. On Monday, the office’s current leader, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah, said a reinvestigation identified two suspects and “no connection” to the man her predecessors tried and retried in the deaths of Archie Harris, 79, and home health aide Betty Ramcharan, 35.
The statement appears to mark the first time that the DA’s office has publicly said guilt lies with anyone other than Selwyn Days, the man jurors eventually acquitted in 2017. At the time, prosecutors said that they were disappointed in the verdict. Days’ lawyer, Glenn Garber, said Monday that it’s time for his client to get vindication.
“He is truly innocent, and it’s important to fully put this matter to rest,” Garber said, adding that the public also is entitled “to a fair and just closure of this heinous case.” Rocah took office in 2021 and didn’t work in the DA’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 there was more work to be done before any potential future steps. Rocah is out of time to do that work — she leaves off.
