(Source: Getty Images North America)
*Two years after receiving a $41 million wrongful conviction payout from New York City, the Central Park Five collected an additional $3.9 million from the state.
The settlement was for the economic and emotional ruin the five men endured caused by their imprisonment as teens for the 1989 rape and assault of a jogger in Central Park, the New York Daily News reports. Their convictions were later overturned in 2002 after serial rapist Matias Reyes admitted to the attack and DNA evidence backed up his confession.
“I understand people say it’s a lot of money. The reality is there’s no amount of money that would adequately compensate them,” attorney Jonathan Moore told the publication. “They’ve suffered every day since 1989 and they’re still suffering.”
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I was watching #whentheyseeus with Spanish subtitles with my nephew, mom and sis. We paused and talked about several scenes inc. the one where Raymond Santana was with his grandma who didn’t speak English, and Raymond was translating during the interogation. What would we do? https://t.co/p85e18kmMv
— Marisol (@LaMarichola) June 8, 2019
The settlement gave plaintiffs Raymond Santana $500,000, Antron McCray $600,000, and Yusef Salaam and Kevin Richardson $650,000 each. Korey Wise received $1.5 million since he was imprisoned for the longest time.
The Central Park Five is the subject of Ava DuVernay’s new Netflix series, “When They See Us.” Since its release last month, the case’s prosecutor, Linda Fairstein, was forced to resign from a number of charity boards following backlash over the series, and has been dropped by her publisher Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The online campaign called #CancelLindaFairstein also forced Fairstein to shut down her social media accounts.
The men known as The Central Park Five watched the press about them as kids. One said to me years ago, “I used to wish we could just get to Oprah and tell our story.” That time is now. On June 12, @Oprah will interview The Innocent 5. Airing on @OWNTV + @Netflix. ✊?(Via @Ava) pic.twitter.com/XegTAEZmpd
— When They See Us (@WhenTheySeeUs) June 7, 2019
In related news, Michael B. Jordan presented the Central Park Five men with the courage award at the ACLU SoCal’s 25th Annual Luncheon in Los Angeles on Friday, June 7.
“It’s dangerous in America when you’re living in a black body,” Jordan said.
Jordan praised the men — Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — for their courage during the event in which the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California honored the Netflix’s series.
“The whole time that these men were incarcerated, they never changed their story,” he said. “They insisted of their innocence even as they did their time.”
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