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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Sat Oct 6, 2012, 07:33 AM Oct 2012

The painful lessons of the Central Park Five and the jogger rape case

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/05/central-park-five-rape-case


Still from the Central Park Five, Ken Burns' documentary about the 1989 jogger rape case and the miscarriage of justice that followed. Photograph: PR

The City of New York's subpoena of Ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker whose recent project covered the wrongful conviction and eventual exoneration of five men accused of raping and beating a woman in Central Park, opens up a painful point in New York City history, and raises questions about the strength and reach of New York's journalist shield laws. It should also open up a demand for real changes to police investigation and interrogation tactics – to preserve the rights of criminal defendants, and to protect crime victims.

More than 20 years ago, the Central Park jogger rape case roiled New York City, stoking racial tensions and fanning the flames of widespread fear and frustration with pervasive crime and violence. The jogger, a 28-year-old investment banker, was raped and brutally beaten; she barely survived. A group of five black and Latino teenage boys was implicated in the crime. Four of the five confessed on videotape. The boys later recanted, but were all convicted. The media storm around the crime and the trial latched onto the narrative of roving gangs of kids from the projects going "wilding", attacking unsuspecting victims in the park and robbing them, beating them or worse.

More than a decade later, DNA evidence and the confession of the man tied to it proved the innocence of the "Central Park Five". They were released from prison and saw their convictions vacated. Three of the five – now men who spent much of their adult lives in prison – filed a lawsuit against the city in 2003. It's in the context of that lawsuit that the Burns footage – footage that, ironically, the city did its best to prevent from being shot in the first place – has been subpoenaed.

The Central Park jogger case is particularly compelling because it flies in the face of what we believe to be common sense about criminal convictions. A confession, it would seem, is the most ironclad proof of guilt: why would anyone in their right mind confess to a crime they didn't commit? How could five boys all confess to the same crime if they weren't actually responsible?
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The painful lessons of the Central Park Five and the jogger rape case (Original Post) xchrom Oct 2012 OP
You know what's sad? (And I'm ashamed to say this) cali Oct 2012 #1
Scottsboro II tblue Oct 2012 #2
 

cali

(114,904 posts)
1. You know what's sad? (And I'm ashamed to say this)
Sat Oct 6, 2012, 07:36 AM
Oct 2012

I don't even remember the exoneration, only the arrests and confessions.

Confessions in this country should be suspect.

tblue

(16,350 posts)
2. Scottsboro II
Sat Oct 6, 2012, 08:13 AM
Oct 2012

I think every arrest, abuse and death while in custody with a black or Latino make should automatically trigger a thorough investigation. This crap has got to stop. The Law must be.

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