         
To
add your name to the SATI Mailing List,
click here
|
|
SATI e-News:
December 11, 2002
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Prosecutors
Seek Reversal for Convictions in Central Park Jogger Rape |
|
|
|
|
|
In April 1989, the rape of a white,
28 year-old stockbroker and Central Park jogger shocked the
country and made the term "wilding" a household word. Thirteen
years later, the country is stunned again, but this time by the
revelation that the five young black youths who were arrested
and convicted in this high profile case were apparently wrongly
accused.
By the time the real perpetrator was arrested in August 1989, he
had raped and murdered a 24-year old pregnant mother of three
and raped three other women, according to Women's enews (WEnews).
Last week, Robert Morgenthau, Manhattan's district attorney,
asked the judge to vacate convictions of the five young men
accused of the crime. Morgenthau was responding to a defense
motion, according to a press release from Morgenthau's office,
and was based on "newly
discovered evidence."
The DA's office revisited the case in May of this year when
Matias Reyes admitted to the crime after being convicted of
another rape. Reyes says he was the sole perpetrator in the
Central Park attack, and DNA testing confirmed his tie to the
crime. The WEnews speculates that had police compared the
DNA sample found at the Central Park crime scene to DNA evidence
from a string of rapes on Manhattan's Upper East Side, they
would have realized that all the rapes had been committed by the
same man.
The semen evidence recovered from the victim could not be traced
to the DNA of any of the five men who were originally convicted
in the case. The victim, who was in a coma and close to death
when found, was unable to recall any details of the attack. The
five youth ranged in age from 14 to 16 at the time of the
attack, and were convicted by two separate juries based largely
on their own "confessions," which conflicted greatly in
important details such as the weapon, descriptions of the
victim's clothing and her injuries.
A report on the case by Nancy E. Ryan, chief of trials in the
Manhattan DA's office, was critical of the police interrogation,
but said nothing about coercion or trickery, according to the
New York Times. Her report suggests that the young men may
have believed they were making statements as witnesses, but insodoing,
their testimony implicated them as accomplices. Ryan's report
did not attempt to assign blame for how it happened, nor did it
criticize any of the detectives and prosecutors who handled the
case, according to the Times.
The last of the defendants was released from prison in August.
The judge is expected to rule on the motion to vacate the
charges against the Central Park Five by February 6. The victim,
now 42, married and living in Connecticut, did not make a
statement about the latest developments in the case. She has
been writing a book about her recovery, entitled, "I Am the
Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility," which
will focus on her recovery, rather than the assault itself. She
plans to go public with her name upon the release of the book
next spring.
News Release from the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney,
December 5, 2002
Suspects' DNA Ignored in Central Park Jogger Case, Women's
Enews, December 5, 2002.
"Prosecutor Seeks the Reversal of Convictions In Jogger Case,"
New York Times, December 6, 2002.
"Reversals Sought in Central Park Jogger Case," Washington
Post, December 6, 2002.
"Leading Life in Private and Poised to Go Public," New York
Times, December 6, 2002. |
|
|
|
|
|
> Other Articles in This Issue: |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
