The four juvenile defendants served 6–7 years each; the 16-year-old was tried and sentenced as an adult and served 13 years in an adult prison. The five other defendants, indicted for assaults of other victims, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and received less severe sentences.
The Central Park Five, the subjects of Ava DuVernay's Netflix film “When They See Us,” received a newly discovered $3.9 million settlement from the New York State Court of Claims in 2016 in addition to the $41 million received in 2014, according to the New York Daily News.
Ava DuVernay's Netflix series, When They See Us, is based on the true story of the “Central Park Five.” Five boys were wrongfully accused and convicted of raping and beating a white woman in 1989. The men have since been exonerated of those crimes and are now in their mid-forties.
Lederer has now resigned from her long-held position as lecturer at Columbia Law School. She told law school Dean Gillian Lester on Wednesday, June 12 that she will not renew her teaching application at the university.
Raymond Santana Jr., 45 After submitting a false confession, he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to five to 10 years in a youth correctional facility. He served six years before he was released.
Ava DuVernay's Netflix miniseries When They See Us has put the stories of the Central Park Five back in the news. Five teenagers served time — and were released between 1995 and 2002 — for a crime they didn't commit.
rapist Matias ReyesIn 1989, five men were wrongfully convicted of raping and beating a woman in Central Park and they weren't released until 2002, when the real criminal confessed to the crime. That man was convicted murderer and rapist Matias Reyes.
They maintained their innocence and said they were coerced by cops into confessing. All five were freed from prison in 2002 after a convicted murderer and rapist confessed to the crime and his DNA matched the crime. In 2014, the city paid the men $41 million to settle a lawsuit.
The Central Park Five were Kevin Richardson, 14, Raymond Santana, 14, Antron McCray, 15, Yusef Salaam, 15, and 16-year-old Korey Wise. Richardson and Santana were the first to be taken in by police, on reports of intimidating behaviour and muggings.
Elizabeth Lederer, lead prosecutor in the Central Park Five case, has resigned from her part-time lecturer post at Columbia Law School after a petition calling for her firing garnered over 10,000 signatures.
Elizabeth Lederer, who was the lead prosecutor on the case, will not be returning to Columbia Law School as a part-time lecturer this fall, following the fallout from the miniseries. Her appointment had previously been protested by the school's Black Law Students Association.
Variety reports that Elizabeth Lederer, a Manhattan district attorney at the time of the infamous trial, has resigned from a part-time teaching position at Columbia Law School. Lederer, a lead prosecutor in the trial that falsely convicted five young men of rape, is portrayed by Vera Farmiga in the series.