David Bryant - False Confession

Bryant, David ; murder, child sex abuse ; NRE: false confession, perjury/false accusation, false/misleading forensic evidence, inadequate legal defense, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant, misconduct in interrogation of exoneree

[418:621]; 1st Dept. 7/10/79; affirmed, but two dissenters

[from dissent :] "At about 1:50 a.m. on March 29, 1975, the body of 8-year-old Karen Smith was found on the rooftop landing of 1285 Washington Avenue, a building in a New York City Housing Authority Complex in he Bronx. The victim had been stabbed several times and appeared to have been sexually assaulted.

"At about 3:30 a.m., Detective Chapman of the Housing Authority Police arrived at the scene. He spoke with Officer [Richard] Clark , a Housing Police Officer, who told him that he had 'caught' David Bryant, an 18-year-old neighborhood youth, on the same roof landing on other occasions. Clark also told Chapman that Bryant had been previously seen with young girls.

Tthe questioning of Bryant [lasted for] eleven hours. Bryant [was] of borderline intelligence (he has an I.Q. of 71)..."

[972:821]; Bronx Cty. Ct. 4/11/13; motion to vacate granted , due to trial attorney's failure to have Brown's blood type determined and consult a serologist.

[988:175]; 1st Dept. 6/19/14; above reversal is itself reversed, and conviction reinstated; said above did not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel.

274 F.Supp.3d 166; S.D.N.Y. 8/3/17; writ granted , due to ineffective assistance of counsel. (2nd Circuit subsequently affirmed this grant.)

NRE synopsis (by Ken Otterbourg):

"Police found the body...in a stairwell on the sixteenth floor of her apartment building in the Bronx...All her clothes except her socks and underwear had been removed, and there was blood on the steps and the wall of the stairwell."

"The police went to Bryant' apartment...and took him to the precinct for questioning. They asked him to put on the clothes he had worn the day before: a gray jacket and sweatshirt, white pants and sneakers. Several witnesses would later confirm that this was Bryant's attire on the day Karen was killed."

"[Bryant] said he had been with friends for most of the day, including around the time when Karen was last seen alive.

"Sgt. William Brent ...would testify that he first talked with Bryant about Karen's death, and shortly thereafter Bryant told him what had happened. In his [false] confession, he said he had seen Karen on the elevator and asked her whether she wanted to have sex. Then, he said, he brought her to the sixteenth floor, and raped and stabbed her with a knife. At some point he blacked out, and when he came to, he threw the knife into the dumpster a few blocks away. The knife was never found. Bryant said he went home and washed up after he got rid of the knife. Bryant's confession was not recorded electronically but was taken down by a stenographer."

"Along with his confession, the state's most important piece of evidence was the testimony of 10-year-old Billy Tyler, who also lived in the apartment building and knew both the victim and Bryant. He testified that he had seen the two of them together twice on the night she died. First, he said, Bryant had asked Karen for some candy, and she had said no. Then, after dinner, he said he had seen them both near the corner store across the street."

"The state also presented testimony and forensic evidence from a serologist named Alexander Weiner . Despite the brutal nature of the attack on Karen and extensive amount of blood at the crime scene, there was no blood on Bryant's clothes . An examination of Karen's clothes found markers for Type O blood present in both the blood and bodily fluids on the fabric of her underwear. Karen had Type )O blood. The testing also found the presence of semen. Wiener* testified that it was impossible to state the source of the Type O markers in the fluid residues because it could have been from the girl or her attacker. But he didn't have the evidence to draw that conclusion. The state never tested Karen's blood to see if she was a secretor , one of approximately 20 percent of the population whose blood can be typed from secretions as well as blood itself."

[ * In the synopsis, NRE spells this as both Weiner and Wiener; which one is correct is unknown.]

"Bryant...testified...that his confession had been beaten out of him by Brent and other officers, that they had thrown him on the floor and kicked him until finally he relented and repeated what Brent told him."

"Bryant...was sentenced to 25 years to life...He would be turned down for parole seven times because he would not admit his guilt.

"In 2002, Bryant contacted attorneys with Centurion Ministries to work on his case...In 2010, Bryant had his blood typed...The tests showed he was a Type B and a secretor, meaning that his blood type, if his bodily fuids had been present, should have shown up in both the fluid samples tested on Karen's clothing."

"On April 11, 2013, [Bronx County Judge Seth] Marvin vacated Bryant's conviction, and he was released from prison. That freedom was short-lived. The state appealed Marvin's ruling, and on June 19, 2014, the...Appellate Division reversed Marvin's ruling."

"After the ruling, Bryant returned to prison on July 1, 2014."

"Bryant's release in 2013 had generated substantial news coverage. One of the people who read about his case was Billy Tyler, now a grown man. Tyler said he had been haunted for years about what had happened and what he testified had happened...In an affidavit...Tyler said he had lied on the witness stand. In his statement, Tyler said he and Karen had been playing outside that evening.

Bryant had walked by and asked about some candy, then gone inside. Karen didn't go to the store, and Bryant hadn't followed her. A half-hour later, Tyler said, the two children finished playing, and they went inside."

"Tyler said the police showed him a pair of dark pants covered with blood that they said belonged to Bryant. Tyler said he knew that was false; the pants were too large...As he continued to talk with the police over the next few weeks, Tyler said, his story changed and sharpened as he was told what he needed to say."

"Armed with that new affidavit, Bryant's attorneys filed a supplemental motion to vacate his conviction based on actual innocence, as opposed to ineffective counsel. This time, however...the judge ruled against Bryant. He said that even though Bryant's blood type was different from what was found on Karen's clothing, it was possible that the sample was too small or the antigens in his secretions were too weak for detection. He also discounted Tyler's recantation, calling the timing 'highly questionable.'

"On February 28, 2016, Bryant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York...Bryant's attorneys also submitted testimony from a psychologist, who said that Bryant was highly vulnerable to giving a false confession and that the police procedures increased that risk...Underscoring the potential problems with his confession, parts of his statement didn't match the actual evidence.

"Judge Robert Sweet granted Bryant's petition and vacated his conviction on August 3, 2017."

"The Bronx County Court dismissed the charges against Bryant on March 4, 2019. He left the courtroom a free man.

"Bryant subsequently filed a claim for compensation in the New York Court of Claims. That claim was dismissed in 2021."

[All emphases added.]