For the case I’m going to recount, some of you may be too young to remember it, while others who followed it at the time, like me, have long since forgotten it.  While I will be sketching the entire case through to its ultimate outcome, the details of the case are heartbreaking, and must be experienced through the viewing of this documentary.

In 1989, five black New York teenagers – Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise, and Yussef Salaam – were charged with the brutal rape of  Trisha Meili, the so-called Central Park jogger, who was found in the park near death on the same night that all five had been in the park causing general mischief.  All five confessed to the crime, four of them doing so on videotape.  All soon recanted their confessions as they claimed the confessions were obtained under coercive interrogations by the police, interrogations which were not videotaped.  Despite these recantations, and that there were numerous factual inconsistencies among the confessions, and the fact that there was no physical evidence tying the defendants to the crime scene, including an unidentified DNA sample, all five were convicted and given maximum sentences.

All five completed their sentences and were released back into the community but were all registered as sex offenders.  Raymond Santana was later convicted on a drug charge and was given a longer sentence than normal due to his prior conviction on the Jogger case.

In 2002, a man by the the name of Matias Reyes, already serving a life sentence for other crimes, and having a belated attack of conscience, confessed to being the sole attacker in the Jogger case, claiming he had acted alone.  The specific details of his confession were entirely consistent with the crime, and his DNA matched the previously unidentified sample found at the scene.  Based on the recommendation of the District Attorney, Henry Morgenthau, all convictions against the five related to the Jogger case were vacated.  Raymond Santana was also released from prison.  All five were removed from the sex offender registry.

In 2003, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana Jr., and Antron McCray sued the city for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress.  The suit was only recently settled in late 2013.  Although the rush to justice seems obvious, no-one involved in the prosecution of this case has ever admitted any wrongdoing, either through malice or negligence.