In 1989 a white woman was brutally assaulted and raped while jogging in Central Park. Five teenage African American were arrested and charged with the crime. The story is the subject of Ken Burns new documentary ‘The Central Park Five‘ opening December 14 in San Francisco.
The accused teens were picked up for being among a street gang of young black and brown men that had assaulted joggers and pedestrians in the park that night in a violent male ritual called “wilding”. Several of those victims walked over to the police station before the brutal assault of the woman. The crime received tremendous media attention, and the investigation seized the teens and tried to piece the story together and make it fit with the presence of the young men in the park.
The accused were found guilt and spent time in prison from six to 13 years despite conflicting testimony and lack of DNA evidence. The teenagers admitted to the crime but later said they were tricked, coerced and just wanted to get it over with. In 2002 Matias Reyes, a convicted rapist and
and murderer serving a life sentence for other crimes, confessed to the assault of the woman and claimed he acted alone. DNA evidence confirmed it and testimony by Reyes he could not have known from the crime scene.
Directors Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon interviewed various experts in the judicial system and relatives of the accused. The interviewees include former NY Mayor Ed Koch who called the assault “the crime of the century”, former NY Mayor David Dinkins and former NY Governor Mario Cuomo who condemned the perpetrators.
The five teens appear in the documentary after their release from prison –Antron McCray (who chose to only use his voice to protect his anonymity in the documentary), Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam.
The directors examine the environment of New York of the time, the financial and educational problems and neighborhoods falling apart. Crime was on the upswing with six murders a day and crack had made its inroads where poor black and brown teenagers were targeted.
In 2003, the Central Park Five brought a $250 million lawsuit against the NYC for wrongful conviction. Burns’ material used in the making of this film has recently been subpoenaed by New York City but he refuses to turn the material over. Burns has been accused of “pure advocacy” in his film, as if a documentarian does not have freedom of speech.
‘The Central Park Five’ debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. Ken Burns and one of the Central Park Five Raymond Santana were in San Francisco to promote the documentary recently and gave an exclusive interview to Movie Magazine International , San Francisco
Trailer for the documentary: The central Park Five.
In 1989, five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem were arrested and later convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park. They spent between 6 and 13 years in prison before a serial rapist confessed that he alone had committed the crime, leading to their convictions being overturned. Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, The central Park Five tells the story of that horrific crime, the rush to judgment by the police, a media clamoring for sensational stories and an outraged public, and the five lives upended by this miscarriage of justice.
Read more at http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/central-park-five/trailer#oTmfgqXx0Y0hBjRw.99
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