Ava DuVernay, director of award-winning films and documentaries such as “Selma” and “13th” reminds us of the insidious truth to our legal and justice system in the U.S. with “When They See Us”, a four-part Netflix miniseries about the Central Park Five. Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were wrongfully accused and indicted for beating and raping female-jogger (Trisha Meili), coined as the “Central Park Jogger”, in 1989. At the time of their sentencing, the boys’ ages ranged from 14 to 16 years old. Their sentences ranged from 5 to 15 years, for crimes they did not commit. Negligence, racial bias and discrimination were all factors in this case. However, DuVernay has shifted the narrative to their experience and perspective as not even legal adults, sentenced to prison, while more importantly highlighting the loss of normalcy and innocence that the now-adult men still deal with today.
The five young boys were brought into questioning after Meili’s body had been found in Central Park. Police concluded that she had been attacked at the same time groups of young men had been causing disturbances or “wildin” in the park and that assaulter(s) were a part of that group. Police detectives compiled lists of young men who were allegedly in the park that night and arrested them, including the five boys, paying no mind to whether or not they were participating in any of the commotions that night. The case gripped and shocked the city; Donald Trump bought full spread ads in the newspaper calling for not only the boys’ arrest but for the death penalty for the boys who became known as the Central Park Five.
Korey Wise had actually chosen not to go to the park with his friends that evening and had simply accompanied Yusef Salaam to the police station when he was taken in. Yet he became the only boy tried as an adult, spending 15 years behind bars and solitary confinement. The boys were coerced and bribed into false confessions by the detectives, mainly Linda Fairstein, the head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan’s District Attorney’s Office. Despite the lack of any DNA evidence linking the boys to Meili’s assault, and Matias Reyes coming forward and admitting to the crime in 2002, Fairstein has stood by the sentencing solely off of the false and illegitimate confessions. Although the five were absolved of their convicted crimes, there has been no public apology or acknowledgment from the city of New York in the 30 years since this occurred. However, the five did receive a $41 million settlement from the city in 2014 and a $3.9 million settlement from the state, no amount of money can give back what they lost.
So why is this relevant now? There are multiple reasons this harrowing case resonates today. According to the NAACP:
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Between 1980 and 2015, the number of people incarcerated in America increased from roughly 500,000 to over 2.2 million.
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Today, the United States makes up about 5% of the world’s population and has 21% of the world’s prisoners.
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Though African Americans and Hispanics make up 32% of the US population, they comprised 56% of all incarcerated people in 2015
The Central Park Five, now more appropriately called the Exonerated Five, are not the first or only ones to be victims of an unjust system, Kevin Richardson has stated that they were simply a “modern Scottsboro Boys”. The Netflix series has become the most-watched series and deservedly racked up 16 Emmy nominations. Aside from the commercial success, the Exonerated Five have endured the unimaginable and now embody the need to have the conversations concerning the flawed relationship between racial minorities and our justice system.