The Truth About The Central Park Five

Some of you may remember the infamous case of The Central Park jogger.  In the national news we learned of the assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a female jogger in New York City's Central Park, on April 19, 1989. Five juvenile males—four black and one of Hispanic descent—were tried and convicted for the crime and served their sentences fully. The convictions were vacated in 2002 when Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist and murderer serving a life sentence for other crimes, confessed to committing the crime alone and DNA evidence confirmed his involvement in the rape.

On Friday, February 14th from 9-10am, a Bay State College Victim Rights and Diversity class will be skyping live with Yusef Abdus Salaam.  Mr. Salaam is one of the Central Park Five and is speaking to the class about the whole ordeal. 

To prepare, the class watched the documentary by Ken Burns, Central Park Five.  A number of the students became so interested in the case, they took a trip to New York City for a rally in support of the Central Park Five.

“It’s been good therapy for me having people finally see the truth of what happened and finding out that we weren’t guilty,” said Salaam, who was just 15 when he was arrested for the rape. “So many people know that we were arrested and went to jail for the crime. But they didn’t know we were found not guilty years later. That news wasn’t covered as much.”

To view the full documentary, click here: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/centralparkfive/.