# 5 The Central Park Five

As the sun set on April 19, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Kharey Wise and Yusef Salaam headed out of their Harlem homes and wandered into Central Park to meet up with some others and hang out for the evening. The year was 1989 and young black men were feared by everyone as rates of African American violence skyrocketed through the roof. As these young men gathered, they engaged in a contemporary fad known as "wilding" in which gangs would go out and act violently for the sake of causing trouble. The wandered Central Park, taking things from homeless men, shouting and running loudly, and even pushing one man off a bicycle. At the same time, Tisha Hamilton, an investment banker who lived on Central Park East left her apartment to go for a jog through the park. She rounded a turn and was grabbed, dragged into the woods, brutally beaten, raped, and left to die. The five young men, all of which minors except Wise, were arrested on "unlawful assembly" charges and separated. They each then underwent an intense interrogation. The prosecutors, Linda Fairstein and Elizabeth Leider remarked that the object of the interrogations was "to break the suspect down into a state of despair." After hours of interrogation, each was told that the others had turned on him as the leader. Each was then told that the only way they would be able to leave was if they told the story of what happened. With the assistance of police who fed them facts and information, each fabricated a story of what happened on that night, believing that if they said what the police wanted to hear, they would be allowed to leave. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

New York City at this time was under new management. Mayor Ed Koch had just taken office and had sworn to cut crime rates. As news of this vicious attack hit the press, both he and Governor Cuomo urged for the quick arrest and conviction of these brutal attackers. After receiving confessions from the above five, Fairstein and Leider proceeded quickly with the charges. All but Wise were tried as children and, with the confessions as the only form of evidence, each was found guilty.

It is critical to the understanding of this case that one appreciates the blatant lack of evidence. First and foremost, the confessions of each of the young men, which were the main prop in the prosecution's story, conflicted with one another, resulting in a jumbled mess of incorrect facts. Then there was the evidence itself. First, the trail that Hamilton was dragged down was about 18 inches wide, hardly wide enough for two men, never minds a gang of at least five. Next, the DNA evidence collected from Hamilton and did not match any of the men, logically excluding them from the attack. The response to this fault by detectives was that perhaps there was another attacker that wasn't caught. Finally, witnesses who could place the group around the time of the attack saw them at the complete other side of the park, no where near the location of the rape. With all of this evidence in mind, jurors, plagued by the omnipresent fear of the time, found each man guilty. Wise, the oldest, was sentenced to the longest term as an adult and forced to serve it at Rikers, a "hell on earth" for a youth rapist. It wasn't until Matias Reyas, a long-time offender serving time for multiple rapes, heard Wise's story and adamant declaration that he wasn't guilty that the facts started coming to light. Reyas admitted that he had attacked a woman on the night in question in central park and had never been charged with that attack. He saw the abuse that Wise was suffering and quickly began speaking out in his defense, admitting his own guilty and insisting that the young man be relapsed. Months passed but eventually, Wise, the last of the boys serving time, was released and years later, the charges were completely removed form their records.

Today, we have to wonder how something like this could have happened. Five men were arrested, confessed to the crimes they were accused of, were sent to trial, and were imprisoned...all for a crime they didn't commit! How could the officers have been so blind to the evidence? How could the prosecutors been so ruthless as to seek the death penalty? How could the government spokesmen been so eager to set a precedent that they could ignore the blatant absence of justice? Simple...public fear. The people of the city were terrified at that time, afraid if they saw a black person coming up the street or standing on the corner. Racial tensions were an issue, but it was a double-sided issue. Indeed, it was mostly African Americans that were at fault for the soaring crime rates, but at the same time, African Americans born in the city were engrained with this idea that they would grow up to be violent! It was quiet the self-fulfilling prophesy. It's amazing how fear could lead people to make such huge mistakes. The five were fearing for their lives when they offered their confessions, the jury members were fearing for their safety in the city. One has to consider the role that social mentality plays on individuals in the community, especially when it comes to crime. I'd like to think that I would not be able to confess to a crime I didn't commit or sit on a jury and convict people I knew were innocent, but I suppose the fear our society today feels towards terrorists is very similar. You never know the extent of logic until it is broken by fear.

The Central Park Five