A state prisoner who was suffering from illness and passed away while in city custody recently had recently been granted a new trial. The prisoner had been convicted of stabbing his wife 13 times in the Bronx back in 2016.
Roy Savage, aged 51, passed away on March 22 while being held at the jail ward in Bellevue Hospital. This unfortunate incident marks the third death in the city’s jails this year. While the cause of death is yet to be determined by the Medical Examiner’s office, a reliable source has revealed that Savage was battling cancer at the time of his passing.
Savage was transferred to Rikers Island on November 30th following an appellate panel’s order for a new trial. The panel ruled that an NYPD detective had made an error in reciting the Miranda warning and guiding Savage’s confession after his 2016 arrest.
When the detective read him his rights, he informed him that anything he said could potentially be used against him during the trial. Additionally, the detectives provided misleading information to Savage regarding the implications of confessing, suggesting that it may not necessarily be detrimental to his defense and urging him to make the morally correct decision.
The appellate panel ruled that the police officers undermined the effectiveness of the Miranda warnings through their additional commentary and misleading statements. They noted that after making these misleading statements, the officers did not take any specific action to correct any resulting misunderstanding.
“We must not allow these institutions to spread false information in cases where a suspect has the right to be informed of their rights.”
The trial judge, Margaret Clancy, made a mistake in not suppressing a second confession to prosecutors and DNA evidence found on the knife as “fruit of the poisoned tree,” according to the panel’s ruling. Although she suppressed his first statement to detectives, the decision states that she should have also suppressed the second confession and the DNA evidence.
The decision made by Bronx prosecutors was appealed, but unfortunately, Savage passed away while the appeal was still pending.
He displayed injuries, including cuts on his hand and scratches on his neck. However, detectives refuted his allegations after examining security footage.
In 2024, Savage became the third person to die while in the custody of the Correction Department. This unfortunate incident follows a total of nine deaths in 2023, 19 deaths in 2022, and 16 deaths in 2021.
