Doesn’t Anyone Want to Know Who Killed Louise Cicelsky?
If you’ve been convicted of a crime and believe DNA might exonerate you, it can be an uphill battle to get a judge to reopen your case.
Laws vary state to state, and in New York, where the laws are not as tough, you still may never get a second chance to test DNA evidence if the prosecution doesn’t think the results would change the verdict.
But Renay Lynch is trying to fight this. In 1998, Lynch was tried and convicted for the murder of of 82-year-old Louise Cicelsky. She says she was coerced into a confession, and original DNA never linked her to the crime. But she was found guilty, and now she’s asking New York state to authorize a new round of DNA testing in her case.
Andrew Cohen is senior editor at The Marshall Project and author of this week’s Case in Point, which looks at the case of Renay Lynch. He and Susan Friedman, staff attorney at the Innocence Project, join The Takeaway to explain this case and what it could mean for others like it.
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Graphic Credit: Yolanda Martinez
This segment is hosted by Tanzina Vega
