A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge barred the testimony yesterday of an expert witness on false confessions from the new trial of a man convicted in the 1987 rape and murder of a Southeast Baltimore woman.
James Owens was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of Colleen Williar in her home, based on testimony by jailhouse informants, scientific testing available at the time and a confession by James Thompson Jr., his co-defendant.
DNA testing of semen from the victim's body last year revealed that neither of the two men had raped her, and, as a result, a judge granted Owens a new trial, which is scheduled to start Oct. 16.
Owens' attorneys, who allege that Thompson wrongly confessed to witnessing the crime, wanted to call in an expert on false confessions to testify about police interrogations and the concepts of influence and coercion. However, prosecutors objected and yesterday, Judge John C. Themelis agreed, stating that the witness would ultimately end up opining inappropriately on Thompson's mental state at the time of the confession.
