The true story of the Central Park Five lawyer. The rape of a jogger and the wrongful conviction of a group of teenage boys was the most talked-about crime of the Nineties and has now been turned ...
· The prosecutor of five teenagers convicted for the brutal rape of a female jogger in 1989 - depicted in Netflix's When They See Us - has left her job at at Columbia Law School. Lawyer Elizabeth...
· The lawyers who defended the Central Park Five weren't able to prevent them from being convicted, and they spent years behind bars before they were cleared. When They See …
“ When They See Us ” is continuing to generate real-world consequences. Last week, Central Park Five prosecutor Linda Fairstein began to remove herself from public life amid backlash from …
When They See Us is a 2019 American crime drama television miniseries created, co-written, and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, that premiered in four parts on May 31, 2019. It is based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case and explores the lives and families of the five black male suspects who were falsely accused then prosecuted on ...
A companion special, titled Oprah Winfrey Presents When They See Us Now, in which the cast, the creator, and the exonerated five are interviewed, premiered on June 12, 2019, on Netflix and the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Reid & Associates took DuVernay, ARRA, and Netflix to court in October 2019 because the series called the company's once widely used trademark controversial interrogation technique as "universally rejected." A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit "Because the First Amendment protects non-factual assertions". In March 2020, Fairstein filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Netflix, DuVernay, and Locke for defamation based on her portrayal in the series. In August 2021, the District Court ruled that some of Farstein's claims of defamation and civil conspiracy may proceed to trial.
Armond White from National Review criticized the series in his review, unfavorably contrasting its portrayal of racial tension and violence to period films like Boyz n the Hood and Do the Right Thing.
Ava Duvernay was asked about Linda Fairstein during an interview by Oprah Winfrey, and said: "I think that it's important that people be held accountable."
Lawyer Elizabeth Lederer led the prosecution, but in Ava DuVernay's series she is seen expressing doubts about their guilt.
The 1989 interrogation was conducted by another prosecutor and police.
The New York Times reported that the school's dean emailed students saying Ms Lederer "decided not to seek reappointment as a lecturer".
Ava DuVernay's limited series When They See Us revisits the case of the Central Park Five: five teenagers who were arrested and convicted of a brutal crime they did not commit. In 1989, a white woman jogging in Central Park was attacked, raped, beaten, and left for dead. Five boys of color were arrested for the crime, though there was no evidence (and only coerced confessions) linking them to it. The lawyers who defended the Central Park Five weren't able to prevent them from being convicted, and they spent years behind bars before they were cleared.
It stated that "the defense lawyers have been notable mostly for what they have not done" because they hadn't presented an alternative theory for what happened on the night in question. Instead, Rivera argued that his client was questioned without his father present, leading to the incriminating (and ultimately false) statements he made.
Diller and Moore differed greatly on approach, which fractured the team; Moore wanted to aggressively cross-examine the victim (which he did go on to do), though Diller disagreed. Per a 1990 New York Times article, Diller threatened to move for a mistrial if Moore grilled the woman on the stand.
Burns was apparently actively ineffectual; The Nation reported that he was known for falling asleep in court, once even waking up just to object to himself. Diller and Moore differed greatly on approach, which fractured the team; Moore wanted to aggressively cross-examine the victim (which he did go on to do), though Diller disagreed. Per a 1990 New York Times article, Diller threatened to move for a mistrial if Moore grilled the woman on the stand. Moore followed through on his plan, while Diller focused instead on the questionable circumstances in which the confessions were recorded.
Ava DuVernay’s four-part Netflix series just shows how broken the U.S. justice system is. “ When They See Us “, written and directed by Ava DuVernay depicts what led to the wrongful 1990 con viction of five boys from Harlem – Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Raymond Santana — in the violent rape and assault ...
Something I always keep in mind when interacting with others, is to treat others with respect because we don’t know how rough their path has been.
Actor Marquis Rodriguez (left) in Netflix's When They See Us, and Raymond Santana (right) in real life. Source: Netflix, The Central Park Five (documentary)
The When They See Us true story confirms that from early on in the trial, the defense argued that Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Kharey (now Korey) Wise had been coerced or tricked into confessing. It's also true that the teens, now men, have long claimed that their confessions came after being denied sleep and food for dozens of hours. They first made these claims in their pre-trial hearings (Armstrong Report). In the end, the racially diverse juries didn't buy the defense's argument of coercion. At the time, the videotaped confessions were much more tangible and powerful in their impact.
Actor Caleel Harris (left) portrays Antron McCray as a teenager in the When They See Us miniseries. The real Antron McCray (right) on his way into court in 1990.
In the miniseries, Assistant DA Nancy Ryan (Famke Janssen), who is the voice of reason to Felicity Huffman's Linda Fairstein, dismisses these other assaults in the park as "a dozen kids harassing bicyclists." That's far from what the real Nancy Ryan said in her 2002 brief, stating that "the other crimes committed on April 19 were grave and inexcusable—unprovoked attacks on strangers, apparently undertaken for the fun of it, which left some terrorized, two knocked into unconsciousness, and one seriously injured."
Kevin Richardson's past most aligns with his persona in When They See Us. He was noted by neighbors and teachers as being a shy and quiet kid who kept out of trouble. Those who knew him were shocked when news broke that he was allegedly involved in the Central Park assaults.
Did Korey Wise really go to the station to support his friend Yusef Salaam? The When They See Us true story verifies that Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam were close friends prior to becoming part of the Central Park jogger case. They had known each other since childhood (Express.co.uk). Salaam had been at Wise's house on the day of the Central Park assaults. In the miniseries, Wise decides to go to the station out of loyalty to Salaam. However, according to retired NYPD detective Eric Reynolds, who as an officer arrested two of the Central Park 5 (along with several more teens from the group), he says that Korey Wise was named by other teens who were questioned, and that officers and detectives went specifically to look for both Wise and Salaam. Reynolds implied that the notion that Wise went to the precinct out of loyalty to Salaam is ridiculous and a fictionalization of the real story of the Central Park 5 (Daily Mail).
When They See Us depicts Officer Robert Powers tackling Kevin Richardson (Asante Blackk) as he runs away. Powers then viciously smashes his helmet across Richardson's face. This is taken directly from how Richardson described it in the Ken Burns documentary The Central Park Five.
When the drama “When They See Us” first came out last month, James Peterson had been afraid to watch it. He knew it wouldn’t be a happy story, but when he finally hit play and the first beats of Special Ed’s rap “I Got It Made” raised the curtain on the hit Netflix miniseries, he couldn’t help but start nodding along.
In the Netflix series ‘When They See Us,’ Marquis Rodriguez (l.) plays Raymond Santana, one of five young men wrongly convicted of rape in 1989. The program has caused public backlash against investigators and prosecutors involved in the case.
Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.
Fairstein has criticized the series, writing in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that it is “so full of distortions and falsehoods as to be an outright fabrication.” This week President Donald Trump also declined to apologize for the newspaper ads he took out in 1989, telling reporters, “There were two sides to that. They admitted their guilt.”
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On June 25, 2019, Netflix announced that the miniseries had been streamed by over 23 million viewers within its first month of release.
When They See Us received widespread critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the miniseries has an approval rating of 96% based on 85 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Ava DuVernay pulls no punches in When They Se…
When They See Us is based on events of the April 19, 1989, Central Park jogger case and explores the lives of the five suspects who were prosecuted on charges related to the sexual assault of a female victim, and of their families. The five juvenile males of color, the protagonists of the series: Kevin Richardson (Asante Blackk), Antron McCray (Caleel Harris), Yusef Salaam (Ethan Herisse), Korey Wise (Jharrel Jerome), and Raymond Santana (Marquis Rodriguez), were divided by the pr…
• Asante Blackk as Kevin Richardson
• Caleel Harris as Antron McCray
• Ethan Herisse as Yusef Salaam
• Jharrel Jerome as Korey Wise
On July 6, 2017, it was announced that Netflix had given the production Central Park Five a series order consisting of five episodes. The series was created by Ava DuVernay who was also set to write and direct. Executive producers were expected to include DuVernay, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Oprah Winfrey, Jane Rosenthal and Berry Welsh. Production companies involved with the series were set to include Participant Media, Harpo Films, and Tribeca Productions. On July 9, 20…
• Racism in the United States
1. ^ Bunbury is credited as Angie Richardson though her legal name is Angela Cuffee.
• When They See Us on Netflix
• When They See Us at IMDb