The Exoneration Initiative

The Bronx District Attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit is looking into detectives’ tactics in 31 homicide cases that relied on confessions. At EXI, we know the criminal justice system fails innocent people when police and prosecutors rely on false confessions, unreliable eyewitness identifications, and jailhouse informant testimony. Read more here: https://nyti.ms/2Zm1fP9 Image: Huwe Burton poses for a portrait at Bryant Park in 2019. Credit - Elias Williams for The New York Times

February is #BlackHistoryMonth and an important time to acknowledge that wrongful convictions reflect and exaggerate the racism in American society. Black people are only 13% of the American population but they represent 49% of total exonerations. A recent study by The National Registry of Exonerations found Black defendants are more likely than White defendants to be subject to police and prosecutorial misconduct. At EXI, 80% of our exonerees are black men. Read more here: https://www.nbcnews.com//government-corruption-negligence- . . Image by Anuj Shrestha / for NBC News.

For the last days of 2020, EXI is sharing the story of one of our exonerees every day. Today, we are highlighting Selwyn Days. Selwyn was exonerated in 2018 after serving 17 years for a murder he didn’t commit. Selwyn who is intellectually disabled was interrogated for hours, most of which was not recorded, until he falsely confessed. Almost immediately after confessing to the crime, Selwyn recanted and said he had nothing to do with the murders. Eventually, witnesses wer...e discovered who testified that Selwyn was in North Carolina at the time of the crime. It took five trials to finally prove Selwyn’s innocence of this crime. On September 12, 2017, after one day of deliberations, the jury acquitted Selwyn and he was released. Selwyn told a reporter, "I feel bad for what happened to (the slaying victims) but now everyone knows I didn't do this."