All language subtitles for PBS.The.Central.Park.Five.2013.720p.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

Matias Reyes: I showed them
the top of the entrance,

the direction she came by.

I showed them where
she made the turn.

I showed them where I
picked up the tree branch

and down the road where

I struck her over the
head with the tree branch

and where I dragged her in.

She just kept
moaning, you know,

saying stop, and
grabbing her head.

You know, because she was in
pain and all that, you know.

She was bleeding.

I can't explain to you what
happened after I left there,

that park that night.

But I can guarantee you, that
there was no way these kids

saw this woman come
in or have a idea of

where she was coming from.

I'm the one that did this.

- Ready?
- Yeah.

Approximately 1:30
this morning, ah,

two males walking
through Central Park

north of the 102nd street
jogging path found a female.

She was still alive, and
in fact still is alive.

The female was clad
only in a bra.

She was lying exposed
in the area,

appeared to have been exposed
for a couple of hours.

Her body temperature
was down very low.

Around her mouth there's
an article of clothing

that was wrapped
around her face,

and the same article was used
to bind her wrists to her face.

She had been struck around
the head repeatedly,

mud on her body.

She appears to have been
dragged through the woods,

north into the, ah, shrub area.

She was taken to Metropolitan
Hospital where she is classified

as, ah, in serious condition.

I look back at the jogger
case and wish I had been

more skeptical as a journalist.

You know, a lot of people
didn't do their jobs...

reporters, police,
prosecutors, defense lawyers.

This was a proxy
war being fought.

And these young men
were the proxies

for all kinds of other agendas.

And the truth and the reality and
justice were not part of it.

The bulls are galloping...

Do you have a
passport, Mr. Gotti?

Given the alarming spread
of aids, New York...

If you don't like
it, you're fired.

Tom Brokaw: A savage
racial attack...

In the middle-class
neighborhood of Howard Beach...

A mob of whites
attacked 3 black men...

Peter Jennings: The mayor of New
York called it a racial lynching.

Yo, off with
the camera, man.

New York, under-policed city
with crime out of control.

The criminal justice
system isn't working.

They call him the
subway vigilante.

Dan Rather: Goetz bent over one
of his wounded victims and said,

"You don't look too bad.
Here's another"...

If I had more bullets, I
would have shot them all

again and again.

It's about time someone
stood up for himself.

25-year-old
Michael Stewart...

16-year-old
Yusef Hawkins...

Where 67-year-old
Eleanor Bumpers lived

until police came to evict her
and ended up killing her.

New York is now the capital
of racial violence.

I am. People: I am!

Somebody. Somebody!

You want to use the
gun, we'll use the gun.

None of us is safe. Even
if you lock yourself

behind doors...

There's now a new level of
random violence in this city.

It's intolerable and this
city will rise up in its wrath

against those who
perpetrate monstrosities.

Antron McCray: Harlem. 1989.

My neighborhood, it's
a small neighborhood.

When I was younger, all
the kids would say

it was the suburbs of Harlem.

It was like 3 different projects
around my neighborhood.

Raymond Santana,
Kevin Richardson,

Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam,
I didn't know them,

but I seen them around
my neighborhood.

I lived in the
Bronx at one time,

and the Bronx is
more quiet life.

You know, um, even though
it was the projects.

It was very secluded,
everybody knew each other.

When I moved to Harlem,
Harlem was very fast-paced.

Everything moved fast.

The cars moved fast; The
people; The, the lingo.

It was a big culture shock.

McCray: I was the only child.

And me and my mother,
we was close,

but my father was
my best friend.

I thought he was
like a superhero.

He coached all of my
little league teams.

He was a great teacher.

I played shortstop,
I played pitcher.

In little league, you get
to play everything...

outfield, catcher.

But my favorite
position was shortstop.

Santana, Jr.: My dad
is from Puerto Rico.

My mother's a mix of
Puerto Rican and Black.

So, my dad is, like,
light-skinned Puerto Ricans.

And my mother's side was
more, like, dark skin.

You know, so we have, like,
the best of both worlds.

I used to
ride skateboards.

I used to play things like hide
and go seek and, you know,

used to run around with
a lot of the people

from the neighborhood.

As a kid, I knew Yusef

and I must say he
was a good kid.

Ah, he had, ah... Him and his
family ah, had just moved

into the Schomburg Complex.

Korey and Yusef, we grew
up in the same buildin'.

So, you know, of course I've
seen 'em around and our parents

knew each other from
just day-to-day.

Salaam: It was my mother,
my sister, and my brother.

And my mother was
a single parent,

teaching at Parsons University.

She encouraged all of us to do
good work, good quality work.

Whatever we did.

Wise: When I was a kid,
had a little hearin',

little hearin' problem.

But I just found myself just
ignorin' it to the point

where it affected my life.

I grew up with a big family.

A lot of women in my family.

My mother plus 4 sisters.

Woman: He's the baby and
he was treated as such.

And, you know, mama's only boy
out of 5 children and the baby.

So he was just our hearts',
like, joy, everybody's.

Santana, Jr.: At
that time I was

just getting into music.

Watching videos.
"MTV Raps" was kinda big,

so, we, we watched that.

We would record the videos and
we would watch 'em over and over

and over all day, you know.

You know, my dad would
come in the house, say,

"You still watching that
video from when I left?"

You know, that's how
far my range was.

I think that I was at that point
of coming into who I was,

you know, but I never really...
I never really got there.

New York in the late
1980s was a completely

schizophrenic, divided city.

There was enormous wealth
gushing into the city

out of the rise of the financial
industries, which had surged

beginning around 1980.

So, the city that had
been in a big collapse

for several decades
had turned around.

But there was a whole side to the
city in which drug gangsters

and crack and a kind of hard,
permanently locked underclass

was in place.

And there was
enormous suffering.

It was as if there
was a social moat

that divided these
two New Yorks.

The city, when I came in,
uh, was on the edge of, uh,

bankruptcy, and people thought
we would not, uh, recover.

We were a city coming out of

a series of crises and an
enormous economic crisis.

A school system that
was in collapse;

political institutions that
seemed to be failing the people

and not meeting their needs;

old, fashionable, beautiful,

noble neighborhoods
falling apart.

Koch: And, of course,
overriding was crime.

Several things happened to
me that I just considered

normal part of living
in New York City.

A couple of muggings
and near muggings

and I didn't even report
any of these things.

Just kind of figured
it's the way it is.

People had it worked
out in their heads

that their block was safe,
the streets they walked

to get to the subway to
go to work, they were OK.

Their subway line, they
got on the same spot

on the train every day.

That was OK.

They had figured out a safe
path through this, ah...

You know, garden of terrors.

Koch: And then in about '84,
crack came to New York City

and that increased crime.

No question, uh, about it.

Wilder: When the
crack wars happen,

all of a sudden teenagers
have lots of cash and guns.

And all hell breaks loose
in Bedford-Stuyvesant,

all hell breaks loose in Harlem,

all hell breaks loose in
Brownsville, East New York.

We were supposed to be afraid.

It would have been
irrational not to be afraid.

But the people who suffered most
with the rise of criminality,

gang wars, drug wars, were
actually the people we blamed.

Most of the homicides
were young, poor,

working class black
and brown kids.

And the dominant
social message was

no one cared if you
lived or died.

As far as I'm concerned,
in the late eighties,

in New York City, the black
community was under assault.

"The most endangered
species in America,"

that was a popular phrase,
was the young black man.

Richardson: It was
a nice night.

We was just, um, just hanging
out outside, playing basketball

where I lived at in Schomburg.

Santana, Jr.: It was
a holiday coming up.

We didn't have school.

A couple of friends
wanted to go hang out.

I told him, you know, ah,

"Too much trouble
in the corner.

Um, go to the park."

I sent him to that
park that night.

So, I feel guilt, too.

Wise: I was comin'
from a restaurant

on the corner of 110th street.

We walked over to 110th street.

Almost in front of the
entrance to Schomburg Plaza.

Comin' from 110th and Madison,
there was a group of people.

I see this mob
turning the corner.

Wise: Good kids and bad kids.

Kids just out to have some fun.

McCray: Some of them I
didn't know by face;

some of them went to my school;

some of them lived
in my neighborhood.

Yusef came my way.

I see Korey. I said,

"Hey, come and hang out.

We're about to hang
out in the park."

A close friend of
mine, he stayed back.

We was all playing basketball
and he was like, "Don't go."

Like, stay here."

Next thing I know, we was
going into the park.

Wise: Walk in, a
few of the guys

horse playin' with each other.

Jumpin' on each other's back,
beatin' each other up.

Just horse playin'.

We start going towards
the main road.

And people started throwing
rocks at the cars.

A couple, they was
on a tandem bike.

And some kids is harassing 'em
or sayin' something to them.

Looked like they was
trying to pull 'em off

and the bicyclists kept
they, held their balance

and they just kept goin'.

A homeless person starts
walking across the street

and the guys surround him.

McCray: He had some food.

Some of the guys
out of the group

took his food, beat him up.

Salaam: They were beating
this guy up really badly,

and at some point in
time someone poured out

a beer bottle, and then smashed
him in the head with it.

You know, it was
kinda unbelievable

to see that and, and to see,
like, this guy getting,

you know, jumped on by
all these teenagers.

McCray: I remember police
coming, everybody split up.

Santana, Jr.: They shined a
light and the group kind of

dispersed. Everybody ran.

That's when it was time
for me to go home.

I left the park when
everybody scattered.

Santana, Jr.: We was gonna
leave but somebody said,

"Well, let's go find
the rest of the guys

"and we'll break out.

"We'll go home." And
that's what we did.

Salaam: We crossed down onto
the 96th street traverse

and climbed up the rocks
to the other side.

We was by a reservoir.

I remember a man running
by and some kids that are

throwing rocks at him.

And he kept running.

Another person came running by.

And when he got in the middle,
they kind of came out

and they jumped on him.

We was watching from a distance.
I didn't take part in that.

And I'm like, wow, this
guy just picked him up

and threw him into the gate.

Then he just starts punching
him and beating him.

And then somebody
yelled, "Police."

Richardson: Commotion.

Some kids, like,
running that way,

and some kids going
the other way.

Trying to find our way outside,

out of the park.

McCray: I think it was
between, like, 9:00 and 10:00.

I was leaving the park
around that time,

because I had a curfew.

Salaam: I remember walking with
this small group to the 1,

2, and the 3 train on Broadway.

The only crime I
committed that night

was I hopped the turnstile.

Santana, Jr.: On
Central Park West,

a car pulled up in front of me

and two officers jumped out.

And one grabbed me.
And, um... And,

and when I turned back,
the crowd scattered

and everybody ran.

Police was chasing
me and I had

nowhere else to go, so, there
was a wall and you jump

over the wall, you go
back into the park.

They handcuffed us
and put in the car.

And then his partner ran and
he jumped over the wall

into the park and he took off.

Richardson: Somebody told me
to, "Freeze or I will shoot."

My fear even went up more
so I just kept runnin'.

One of the cops, he tackled me.

All my clothes was just
all dirty and muddy.

And he had a helmet, and he
swung it across my face.

And he handcuffed me
and I said, um...

I thinks he said, um,
like, "What's goin' on?"

And he said,

he was like, you know, "Didn't
I tell you not to run?"

Like, you, it's like "You
little, little animal"

or something.

So, um, I basically said, "Oh, I
didn't do nothin', you know."

And we sat in the police
cars for a while.

They rounded up a few people

and we proceeded
to the precinct.

Santana, Jr.:
They brung us in.

They took shots,
ah... photos of us

and then they put us in a room.

Richardson: 14.
Never got arrested.

Never had handcuffs on me.

Scared to death.

I could recall one
cop lookin' at me.

He says, "What's
that on your face?"

And ha, I, I said, um,
"One of your one, of your,

your fellow workers hit me."

And he said, "One of
my, my fellow workers?"

Where at? Come point
him out to me."

You know, like I was lying.

They asked me what was going on
next, and the guys are sayin',

"We'll give you a ticket for
family court and you'll,

you'll be right outta here
in no, in no time soon."

We were sitting there
for a long time.

Richardson: It took
a while but they

begin to call parents.

Black: My mother received
a call from the precinct

and they told her to come
pick up Kevin up from, um,

it was the Central Park precinct
and that he had been picked up

for, I believe it was
unlawful assembly.

3 policemen knock
on my door and say,

"Oh, you ain't know your son
was in the police station?"

I said, "No."

And they tell me,
"Come on, let's go."

I had to get dressed.

And then my mother was there,

and she got scared.

And she said, "I
going with you."

So, she went with me.

I started seeing a
lot of parents.

We feelin' a little
better, you know,

thinkin' that we,
that we gonna be OK.

Woman: The jogger was
discovered about

1:30 in the morning
by passersby.

She was in the underbrush in the
northern reaches of the park

and she was taken to
Metropolitan Hospital.

Dwyer: Her skull
was fractured.

She lost a good deal
of her body fluids.

She was virtually dead.

The kids were about to be
released when a detective

who realized the gravity of
the injuries of the victim

called the precinct and said,
"Hold on to those guys."

And it was from
that moment forward

that everything
plowed towards them.

Black: The next time I
heard from my mother,

she woke me up.

And, ah, she says,

"I'm still here
at the precinct."

And I says, "Well, why
are you still there?"

And she said, um,
"Well, they sayin'

they waitin' for paperwork."

I was wondering what's wrong.

And I told 'em if I could see my
son because I saw him next door

in the room with all the kids.

And they said, "No, you
gotta wait till morning."

So I tell my mother, "Stay with
him and let me to go to work."

They probably gonna release
him in the morning anyway.

I don't see nothin' wrong
and I went to work.

Dwyer: Initially, the case
was going to be handled

by the Central Park precinct.

But she was thought to be near
death, and homicide cases are

handled typically by
these homicide squads.

And Manhattan North was
a prestigious bunch

of detectives

with a great deal of
pride in their work

and swagger in their step.

Two prosecutors, Linda Fairstein
and Elizabeth Lederer.

They were part of
the investigation.

And they were operating
not only as prosecutors

but investigators.

Byfield: I was getting
ready for work

and I heard the news.

And instantly your mind
goes into the calculus.

An unidentified white woman

found raped in
Northern Central Park.

Oh.

I think virtually every

ethnic and racial group in New
York has these moments where

you, your, your heart just sort
of stops and your stomach turns

and you think to yourself, oh,
please don't let it be us.

...Police have 5 teenagers
in custody right now...

Richardson: First we
was all together.

Then they started to put us in
different rooms separately.

Different cops coming
back and forth.

And one cop sayin', "Well, we
just heard that a woman was"

raped and beaten in the park."

Now he says, "What
happened to the lady?"

And I'm saying, "What lady?"

And he says, "What do
you mean what lady?"

The lady who got
raped in the park."

I say, "Yeah, I was in the park."

"And I was, yeah, I was,
you know, all around.

But that I don't know about."

"What do you mean
you don't know?

You just... " And I said, " No.

Never came across no lady."

So now we going back
through the statement

from the top, again.

"What did you do?"
"Who were you with?"

"Who did you come with?"
And, um, same answers again.

They gettin' a little
angry 'cause I guess

they not gettin' a
word outta anybody.

Dwyer: The detectives are
trying to piece together

a narrative of what happened and
they're trying to make it fit

what they know happened:
A woman ended up

at the bottom of a ravine
in the park almost dead

and a bunch of other
people got hassled or hurt

in some way by these kids.

So, they're trying to
make the story climb

some sort of ladder of facts.

All hell is breaking loose
in Central Park that night.

And there are gangs of kids
running around making mischief.

It's not so hard to understand
why these kids were brought in,

why they were interrogated
so aggressively,

why police believed
they had amongst them

the culprit or culprits.

Now they just have to
get the proof of it.

Santana, Jr.: Another
detective came into the room,

he called my grandmother.

And he said, "Listen, can I talk
to you outside for a minute?"

And when he took her outside,
that's when it started.

He looks at me. He's like,

"Oh, this is the scumbag
right here that did it."

Richardson: I remember one
guy specifically tell me,

"You want to spend 25 to
life on Rikers Island?"

You want to go to
jail for rape?

"'Cause they don't like
guys that rape women,"

and things like that.

You know, and I'm saying, like,
I'm, I'm, I'm tellin' the guy,

"I don't know what
you're talkin' about."

Santana, Jr.: Now the
other officer comes in.

He had about red
hair, a short guy.

And he was like, "Oh, so this is the
prick right here."

And Arroyo says, "Yeah,
this is the guy here."

He doesn't want to tell
us what happened."

And I'm sittin' there like,
"Ah, what's going on?"

And now Arroyo starts to
yell at me and then this guy

pulls up a chair next to me.

He starts to yell
right in my ear.

So I have Arroyo here yellin'
at me, blowing smoke in my face

with the cigarette, and then
I have this guy on my side

and he's yellin' at me.

And they're like, "You know you...
did it."

You... stuck your... in her, right?
Didn't you?"

And I'm like, "What are
you talkin' about?"

I didn't stick
nothin' in nobody."

And I start to cry a little bit.
And then Hartigan jumps in.

And I was grateful, you know,
at that point I was grateful

'cause Hartigan stopped him
from trying to hurt me.

Then again, the other
guy come back in

screamin' and yellin, '
violating my personal space,

so close to spittin' on me.

And then my mother, she came
to the door, and she said,

"I need to see my son.

I need to see my son."

I looked out when I seen one of
the detectives, um, you know,

take her by the shoulder,
put her back to her chair.

And while he's talking to
her, they close the door

and they questioning me.

They knew that my mother was, was
a weak person, was disabled.

And they, they used
that, you know.

They used that.

The officers, they
actually met me outside.

They were like, "Oh,
your mother's, you know",

"she's not well and since
you're, you know, of age,

"you can stay and replace
your mother and we'll

send her on home in a squad car,
and we'll make sure she's OK."

And they said, "She was
cooperating with this process."

So we sure that you're
gonna cooperate as well."

So that, in they
constantly kept saying,

"So that your brother
can go home."

So that your brother
could go home.

"So that..." And
that's all I wanted.

I just wanted to
get him back home.

McCray: There was a
loud knock at the door.

It was 3 or 4 detectives.

I thought they was there
because of the assaults

on the people in Central Park.

My father, he let them come in.

These men, they looked
like giants, you know,

compared to my father.

He asked me to put
some sneakers on.

He told my father he was going
to take me down to the precinct.

My father called my mother,

and my mother met
us at the precinct.

They was asking me questions a
female jogger in Central Park.

And I was like, "There
was only one woman",

"and she was with
a man on a bike.

But they rolled off."

And he was like, "You
sure?" I was like, "Yeah."

"What about the lady
that got raped?"

I'm like, "What lady
that got raped?"

They just kept asking me about
this lady that got raped.

And I kept telling them,
"There was only one lady."

They asked my mother
to leave the room.

I'm looking at my
father and he's like,

"Are you telling the truth?"

I was like, "Yeah, Dad,
I'm telling the truth."

I swear I'm telling the truth."

I always told my
father the truth.

"I know nothing about no jogger.

"I know some people
got beaten up,

but I had nothing
to do with that."

Then they asked me to
tell my story again.

This time yelling at me.

All up in my face, pointing
at me, poking me in my chest.

It just kept going
on and on and on.

We stopped a few times
because I was crying.

And I had no protection. My
father didn't do anything.

I was scared.

Santana, Jr.: Hours
have passed.

Richardson: Time kept going by.

McCray: They kept
asking questions.

Santana, Jr.: No
food, no drink.

McCray: I didn't eat. I
didn't get no sleep.

Santana, Jr.: And I didn't
know when it was gonna end.

Kassin: Confrontation followed
by denial, followed by:

"You're a liar, I want to hear
the truth" can go on for hours.

And the, the goal there is
to break the suspect down

into a state of despair, into a
state of helplessness, so that

the suspect gets worn down and
is looking for a way out.

McCray: They pulled
my father aside.

Then my father came
back in the room,

it was like he just changed.

He just changed. He
was like, "Listen."

He was like, "Tell these
people what they want to hear"

so you can go home."

If he just would've
stood his ground,

I would've told the truth.

I would've stuck to the truth.

Santana, Jr.: Hartigan
sat down and he said,

"Look, Ray. I know you
didn't do anything wrong.

"But the other guys right now,
they're in other precincts

and they're saying
that you did it."

And they tellin' me,
"Well, you're not

sayin' nothin' but these
guys put your name in it."

And I'm like, "I
didn't do anything."

And he's like, "Well, this is
why I'm here, to help."

"Because I know you didn't do anything.

You're a good kid. You
know, this isn't you."

He pulls out this picture
of Kevin Richardson.

And he goes, "You
know this kid?"

And I'm like, "No,
I don't know him."

And he goes, "You see the
scratch under his eye?"

"That came from the woman.
We know he did it.

He's going down."

At this point I'm like,
you know, like, I don't

know these, these guys that's,
that's there so I'm just gonna

make up somethin' and, and,
include these guys' names.

Ok. If, if, you know, if you're

going to do it to me, then
I'm going to do it to you.

They was coaching me and
I was writing it down.

Santana, Jr.: He
just fed it to me.

"Well, what did he do? What
did Antron McCray do?"

He gave me the names.
I put 'em in.

I couldn't tell you who they
were, who they looked like.

If he woulda gave me a hundred
names, I woulda put a hundred
people at the crime scene.

McCray: And I was like,
"How can they lie?"

So I was like, "I'm
going to get him back."

At that point, I told myself I
just, I just want to go home.

I thought I had the
upper hand because

here I was, I had a
detective who was saying,

"I'll make sure you go home."

McCray: I was thinking that I
was never going to go home.

I gave these people what
they want to hear.

So I lied.

I lied.

I say, "Well, you
know, this is where"

it happened at the reservoir."

You know, I'm placing the scene
of the crime at the reservoir.

And, and he just, he
doesn't really say

but he gives me this look like,
"What are you talking about?"

McCray: He asked me
what she was wearing.

I didn't know because
I wasn't there.

So I remember one of the men
joggers that got assaulted,

he had blue shorts
and a white shirt.

That's what I said she had on.

And then he said, "It's
gotta be more believable."

"You know, Ray, people
don't fully believe it

if you just saw it."

He said, "Where were you?"

And I said, "I saw
it from a distance."

I was watching."

And he said, "No,
you gotta be in it."

Like, you have to be there."

McCray: As the time just,
you know, went on,

and my father wasn't
doing nothing.

So, I was just like,
"I, whatever, yeah.

"I had something to do with
it," just to get out of there.

[Reading] Then we saw
this lady jogger.

She had on gray shorts
with black biking pants

and a white tank top.

[Reading] I observed
the male, black Kevin,

with scratch on face was
struggling with a female.

McCray, reading: The
tall, thin black guy

hit her in the ribs with a pipe.

[Reading] I moved back
and everybody started

feeling on her.

[Reading] Antron came and started
ripping her clothes off.

McCray, reading: The Puerto
Rican kid with the black hoodie

jumped on her.

[Reading] I tried to grab her.
I got scratched on my face.

Antron pulled her pants off
and she was screaming.

Richardson, reading:
Antron had sex with her.

McCray, reading:
Then Kevin got on.

Richardson, reading: That's
when she was yelling,

"Stop" and "help."

I was the one that
didn't rape her.

[Reading] Kevin pulled down his
pants and had sex with her.

When she was on the floor
I grabbed her tits.

A 4, a 14-year-old boy
doesn't talk like this.

You know?

At that time, being naive,

I figured I'm not
implicating myself.

I was crying at that time.

He said, "Don't worry.
You did good."

Everything's gonna be OK."

McCray: When I first went
there, they said I was going to

be a witness, and then just,
everything just flipped.

You know, they had me raping
a woman, beating her.

And they read the
statement to my mother.

And she looked at me, and I was
like, "Ma, I didn't do it."

She was like, "OK, I
know you didn't do it."

Black: I walked in the
room and I could see

that he was terrified.

I could see him,
like, shivering.

I said, "Kevin, I can't believe
you saw this woman get raped."

And he looked at me.

He say, "Angie, I
didn't see a rape."

And I said, "Kevin, why
did you say that then?"

He said, "'Cause they told me
to say it so I could go home."

But they was like a orchestra,

like they orchestrated
this whole thing.

And I felt so dumb
for not realizing it

till it was too late.

When I came back, they
disappeared my son.

He wasn't there no more.

I said, "Where's my son?"

He said, "They took him to
another police station."

My father did make a return.

Um... But when he came
it was too late.

And waited like 4 or 5 hours.

And then he came in, handcuffed

and a lot of policemen
with, with him.

My dad's sittin' there, so I go

through the same story but
now I add the woman in it.

Now, my dad, this is the
first time he hears this,

so he looks at me
and he goes, "What?"

That happened?"

And now I get quiet because now

here's my dad, I
can't lie to him.

And I... I'm like, you
know, I want to say,

"Dad, don't say nothin',
it's tooken care of."

Dwyer: In those days, there
were probably 6 murders a day.

In the newsrooms, people
didn't always pay attention

to whatever grisly event
of the day had happened.

This one was different.

Last night, a woman
jogger was found

unconscious and partially
clothed in Central Park

about 200 feet north of the
102nd street cross drive.

What we, we believe happened is
the following: The victim was

jogging across the 102nd street
cross drive when she was

attacked by a dozen young males.

She was dragged down in the
bushes near what is called

"The Loch," where she was
beaten and sexually assaulted.

5 youths were arrested
at 96th street

and the west bridle path.

We believe these youths and
others were responsible

for two or 3 other
incidents that occurred

in the park last night, assaults
on, on joggers and pedestrians.

And we are currently
looking for others

we believe to be involved.

Salaam: When I came home, I
remember saying to myself,

"Man, there's a whole bunch of
unmarked police cars out here.

I wonder what happened?"

I bumps into Korey at some point
and Korey says, um, he heard

that they were... are
looking for us.

Wise: So, him and
I went upstairs.

He had the detectives
at his door.

And they said, "Oh,
this is one of the guys"

we were looking for."

Checked my name off.

And they asked Korey who he was.

He looked at the list.

Said, "No, your name
ain't on here."

So they said, "Ah,
you can come down",

come downtown with your buddy."

You'll be right back."

Salaam: We went
to the precinct

and I came home 7 years later.

He came home 13 years later.

Wise: They said, ah,

"Something happened
out in the park.

You was out in the park
that night, right?"

I say, "I was in the
park but I don't know"

what you're talkin' about."

"Kevin is saying this
happened, you know.

Antron is saying this happened."

And they were stopping
me during my retelling

of the events and saying,
"Is this where you got

the woman? Is that where?"

The tone was very, very scary.

I felt like these guys
are really angry.

And you know what?

They might take us to the back
of the precinct and kill us.

A lot of time had gone by.

I didn't even know
what time it was.

Wise: Detective
Hartigan says, "Korey?"

"You look like you
real tired, man.

"Very tired, exhausted,
and you want to go home.

"But you're not gonna go
home until you give up,

till you say a story."

They had made up a story
saying something like, ah,

"Well, we have your
prints on her pants."

I'm thinking, "How did
they take my prints"

and put it on her pants?"

Wise: Detective Nugent,
a young officer

with a whole lot of
energy, came in.

He put his face to my face.
Put his hand in my face.

Grabbed my face, shook my face.
"I want a story from you."

I just gave a written statement
just to satisfy them.

Just to get them out of my
face with it and trying to be

on my way out their buildin'.

And afterwards, he
had me sign on it.

So, I signed on it. Yeah.

These boys were in custody
and under varying

degrees of interrogation for
a range of 14 to 30 hours.

And when you are stressed,
when you are tired,

when you are a juvenile and not
fully mature and developed,

you're thinking, "Right now
I just want this to stop."

Woman: My name is
Elizabeth Lederer.

I'm an assistant district
attorney in New York county.

I'd like to ask you some
questions about a series of

things that happened in
Central Park on the night of

April 19 of 1989.

Before I do that, I'd like
to, ah, advise you of your

rights with respect to
statements you may make now, OK?

You have the right
to remain silent

and to refuse to
answer any questions.

Do you understand?

Yes, I do.

Anything that you say

can be used against
you in court.

Do you understand?

Yes, I do.

You have the right to
consult a lawyer now

before any questioning and
have a lawyer present

during any questioning.

Do you understand?

Could you please
answer out loud?

Yes.

If you have no lawyer

or cannot afford a
lawyer, a lawyer will be

provided for you now free of
charge before any questioning.

Do you understand?

Thank you. Yes.

Now that I have advised
you of your rights,

are you willing to tell me the
truth about what happened

in Central Park on the
night of April 19 of 1989?

Yes. Ok.

Present in this room
is Detective Nugent,

whom you have already
met, I believe...

Wise: Detective Nugent
told me to, "Go in here."

"You're gonna give this story
which you, which you has,

"which you have said to me and
the rest of my coworkers,

"you will go in here
and give the story.

"I'm gonna be in the room.

And I'm gonna make sure,
make sure you do it."

Lederer: This is
Detective McCabe

and Detective Hildebrant.

Ah, I think you've
already met them.

Also present are, I
believe, your parents.

Um, could you each please
state your full name?

My name is Linda McCray.

Bobby McCray.

And, ma'am, what
is your relation?

I'm his mother.

And... his father.

Ok. I want to warn you
of your rights with, ah,

respect to anything you
say in this case...

Why would a parent
not say at that moment,

we want to consult
with an attorney?

The reason is because of the
setting and because of the way

they're being treated by the
police and because of being

overwhelmed by the situation.

It doesn't even register
in their minds.

Lederer: I just want
to state it is now

20 minutes to 5:00
in the morning

on the morning of
April 21 of 1989.

There is another gentleman
here in the room.

Who is that man?

My father.

And, sir, could
you please just

state your name and address.

Paul L. Richardson...

Richardson: My father, he
was a quiet, stern man,

so..

I felt ashamed that I was
even there doing that.

And I shouldn't feel that
way because I was innocent.

Lederer: ...Also present
in the room right now

are Detective Arroyo and
Detective Sheehan...

Santana, Jr.: I was under
the impression that

I was going to be a witness,
help out, or just give 'em

the story and that was it.

Lederer: Sir, could you
please give your name?

My name is Raymond Santana.

Santana, Jr.: I didn't
think about consequences.

I didn't think about anything.

The only thing that
I thought about was

he was gonna make
sure I go home.

That was it.

Lederer: I'm gonna ask
you a few questions...

Richardson: Here I
am doing a videotape

and I'm already deep in this so
I'm thinking now I gotta sell it

to make sure that people
know that I wasn't involved.

Lederer: Were you
trying to touch her?

Not really.

Didn't you tell the
police earlier today

that you had tried to grab her

and that's when you
got scratched?

No, not like,

like feeling her,
feeling her up.

Ok. Not like that?
Trying to stop it.

But you tried, you...

To grab, like, grab the
arms or something.

You tried to grab her arms?

I was trying to stop it.

Did you see Antron have
intercourse with her?

Yes.

Was he laying on top of her,

or was he kneeling, or was he?

Laying on top of her.

Ok. And how long was
he on top of her?

For a short while,
then Raymond,

then Raymond went.

We was headed to
the West Side.

That's when I seen Kevin.

That's where you saw Kevin?

Was anybody with Kevin?

Yeah, a lady.

Who was with Kevin?

Some lady.

A lady? Mm-hmm.

How was she dressed?

I couldn't tell.
It was too dark.

What was he doing with her?

Struggling with her.

What were the others
doing while Kevin

was struggling with
her, with the wrists?

Antron was going
for her clothes

and Lopez was
holding her arms.

What was Kevin
doing while, um,

Steve Lopez was
holding her hands

and hitting her
with the brick?

He was having sex with her.

Where were you standing?

I was on the side of Kevin.

Were you watching?

No, I was grabbing
the lady's...

Who else had sex with her
besides Kevin Richardson?

I didn't see anybody else
who had sex, just him.

Did somebody have
sex with her?

Yeah.

Did a lot of people
have sex with her?

Yeah. First it was
the black guy,

then it was the Puerto Rican
guy with the black hood?

Then you got on top of her?

Lederer: What's
in that picture?

Wise: It's her.

Is that the woman
that you saw?

Yes.

Is that sort of the
way she looked

when you saw her?

Yes, yes, ma'am.

Did you see anybody
hit her with the,

with anything but their hands?

I seen... And I'm
telling you, Korey...

I don't want you to think that

you have to say that,

but I want to
know what you saw

that explains how she
got so badly hurt.

I did see Kevin pick
up a, a hand rock,

a small hand rock, and hit
her across the face with it.

How big was the rock?

It was a hand, about that
big, like, it was nice,

it was big, it was a
good-shaped rock.

Hit her across like that.

Are you just saying
that because I...

No. Uh, uh, no. I
am asking you.

Why didn't you say it before?

- Huh?
- Why didn't you say it before?

Because I remember I was,

me taking a quick
glance in the dark.

I remember him
picking up a rock

from out the, out the dirt.

Woman: Why did you tell them
something that wasn't true,

that you hadn't seen?

I guess... I would
strongly guess

just to save my own life.

To get out, get out,
get outta there

as quickly as I, I
can as possible

because I been there
too long as it was.

And, you know, bein' a kid

I never experienced
that in my life.

How old were you?

16.

16 and I felt like
I was about 12.

Lederer: Did you tell us
the truth voluntarily?

Yes, ma'am.

Because you wanted to?
Yes, ma'am.

Did anyone force you?

No, ma'am.

Did anyone threaten you?

No.

Thank you very much. It is now

20 minutes to 4:00 and the
interview is concluded.

Detective: Hey. Sit down...

Got to get you to
sign something, eh?

Huh?

Santana, Jr.: They
put us in the cell

with the rest of the guys.

Now there's all these guys that
I don't even know, you know.

Who are you, you know?
And, um...

And everybody's
asking each other.

You know, "Well,
what did you say?"

What did you say?"

And everybody's
basically saying,

"Well, I told 'em I
was with my boy.

And we left. I
didn't see nothing."

Nobody's saying what
they actually said.

Everybody had that sense of don't
let it out the bag because

if I let it out then
I'm not gonna go home.

Woman: In New York City
this morning, a jogger is

fighting for her life after a
brutal attack in Central Park.

Woman: Viciously battered
and unconscious,

wearing only a jogging bra, her
hands tied over her mouth.

Woman: The suspects are
14- and 15-year-olds

who blazed a nighttime
trail of terror.

Assaulting an elderly man,

attacking a male runner, hitting
another person with a lead pipe.

At one time, the group
was running in a pack of

more than 25 youths.

Woman: The victim is now
in critical condition

at Metropolitan Hospital.

Two skull fractures,

a significant loss of blood,
and advanced hypothermia.

Woman: If she lives,
it's likely she'll

suffer from brain damage.

8 suspects were
arraigned this weekend,

aged 14 to 17.

Jennings: Some of the
young men told police

they were just out wilding.

Woman: Wilding is a word you
won't find in Webster's.

Wilding. New York
city police say

that's new teenage slang for
rampaging in wolfpacks,

attacking people just
for the fun of it.

The district
attorney's office says

the teenagers have confessed.

The spokesman said some of those
confessions are on videotape.

Koch: A woman jogging
and Central Park.

Central park was holy.

If it had happened any place
else other than Central Park,

it would have been terrible,

but it would not have
been as terrible.

It was for everybody,
not just me,

the crime of the century.

Colangelo: Today we are
announcing the arrests of

4 males, all between 14 and 15
years of age, in connection with

the April 19 attempted
murder, rape, and assault

of a female in Central Park.

"They got 'em!" That
was the, uh, feelings.

"Thank God, uh, for Ben
Ward and the NYPD.

They got 'em!"

Kassin: Set against the
backdrop of New York City

and a crime that just about
has everybody flipping out,

you can only imagine
the pressure that NYPD

was under to have this crime
solved and solved quickly.

Dwyer: Jack Maple, one
of the architects of

the 1990s New York city
police revolution,

once told me that he
remembered seeing detectives

involved in the Central Park
jogger case in Elaine's

within a day or
so of the crime,

celebrating the arrests.

There was a sense that
this had been a home run

from a law enforcement
standpoint.

When they chained us up to
go to another precinct,

pictures snapping.

Me and Yusef did
the walk together

and we just kept our head down.

When we saw the lights we,
we still didn't know.

We still didn't understand.

Richardson: I'm walking
and I'm scared

but I had my head up high.

And all I think to myself, "OK,
the truth is going to come out."

Dwyer: After they got out
of the interrogation room,

they backed off.

Each one of them
denied having done it.

Consistently, again
and again and again.

They said, "No,
we didn't do it."

For the first time
since the April 19

rampage through Central Park,
Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau

spoke out publicly on the
attacks to officially announce

indictments involving
6 of the 8 suspects

charged with the
most serious crimes.

Morgenthau: Each is
charged in this attack

with attempted murder,
rape in the first degree,

sodomy in the first degree,

sexual abuse in
the first degree,

two counts of assault
in the first degree,

and riot in the first degree.

Hancock: There's no
way that I as a woman

could not feel horrible for her
and feel scared for myself

and every other woman
walking the street.

And I was on the edge of my seat
hoping that she would get better

but there was no indication that
she would recover consciousness.

Byfield: For me, the one
piece of information

that just got me was
her friends coming in

to identify her and
her being just

beaten beyond recognition.

And the only way that her
friends could identify her

was by a ring that she wore.

The 28-year-old
victim lies in a coma.

A teacher called
her "golden girl,"

an investment banker with
a blue-chip background

whose savage beating and gang
rape has provoked outrage

in a city famous
for indifference.

Suspects in the crime were
arraigned this weekend,

aged 14 to 17.

Lederer: Rape in
the first degree;

sodomy in the first degree;

sexual abuse in the
first degree...

We was at arraignment and, um,

I remember them
reading charges off...

robbery in the first, attempted
murder in the first,

rape in the first.

And the lawyer was like,
"Don't say anything.

Just keep your head down."

Lederer: ...That he
had her by the legs,

and that he raped her after
defendant Santana did.

But it wasn't until

you got into that jail and,
and you felt the impact.

McCray: Spofford
Juvenile Detention.

You had kids that
committed serious crimes.

Murder, rape.

Santana, Jr.: This
counselor came down,

he sat there with us.

And he said, "You know, you know
how serious y'all case is?"

And we was like, "What
are you talking about?"

And he said, "You all,
y'all over the paper."

"Y'all in every news station.

Everybody's talkin'
about y'all."

He said, "It's so serious the
whole jail want to get you."

Salaam: Because he was 16,

they sent Korey
to Rikers Island.

Rikers Island would
make Spofford...

Look like a country club,

'specially when you're in there

for a rape charge.

To be a child, to
be 16 years old

and to be in an adult facility,
I can't imagine that.

Rikers Island at
the age of 16.

Bein' forced to
grow up very fast.

Byfield: In the first few
days after the incident,

the narrative that
came out was that

these young men were guilty.

And it was almost unquestioned.

Koch: When parents or
grandmothers, ahh,

of some of these, ah,
alleged perpetrators...

we always have to say alleged
because that's the requirement.

When those grandmothers
say, "But he's a good boy."

He never did anything."

Don't you believe it!

Black: There was so much hate.

We couldn't watch TV.

There's something wrong
with the parenting

and the families and the
home life of our city.

It's an outrage. It's, it's...

The violence in this city,

the quality of
life in this city,

is getting worse and worse.

This is the, the, mm, the
ultimate shriek of alarm.

This is the ultimate siren
that says none of us is safe.

The story has enraged
many New Yorkers,

startled others, and
started renewed talk of

an under-policed city with
crime out of control.

Mayor Koch said, "This will
be a test of the system."

People want to see how the,
ah, criminal justice system

works, or if it works.

Woman: The brutal attack on
the young investment banker

is fueling a new battle
for the death penalty,

even though as the proposed law
now stands, it would only apply

to those 18 or older.

Woman: I'm for the
death penalty.

If someone were to hurt
my family or a loved one

as they did this woman,

I would probably want them dead.

You better believe
that I hate the people

that took this girl and
raped her brutally.

You better believe it.

Woman: Trump put his money where
his mouth is by taking out

this full-page ad in 4 New
York City newspapers.

"Bring back the death penalty."

Byfield: They were children.

They were children.

Bringing up the death penalty
in the context of the case

in which you were discussing
children was outrageous to me.

I think that if she had
been a wa... young woman

who, ah, who had been found in
an alley in Bedford-Stuyvesant;

if she had been
found, ah, in Harlem;

ah, if she had been found in any
of the, any of the, ah, ah,

darker enclaves in this
city or in this state,

Donald trump wouldn't have
spoken, he, he wouldn't have

even whispered a word.

Interracial rapes are
covered differently.

And there was another major
rape in the city at the time.

And this is the woman who
was raped in Brooklyn

and thrown off a rooftop.

That got little to no coverage

because the assailants
and the victim

were in the same racial group.

If there's a white woman and
the accusation is that she's

been done-in by blacks, that
by itself takes you back

to Emmett Till, who did nothing
but whistle at a woman

and ended up in a shallow
Mississippi grave.

If this had happened in 1901,
they would have been lynched,

perhaps castrated, and their
bodies burned and that

would have been the end of it.

But this was New
York City, 1989.

It was not Jim Crow South.

And yet the same words are
being used with the same

damaging results.

Butts: They seized on the
fears of the people.

Wilding.

The bestial characterization
of the black man, these young

hoodlums, these thugs.

Wilder: Once we were on the path
to identifying these young men

as the culprits, it's hard
to get off that path.

And race, power, and politics
make it extremely difficult.

It requires extraordinary courage.

A lot of people in the
black community went along

with the confessions.

Many of us were frightened
by our own children.

Many of us had been pushed
around, raped, burglarized,

pocketbooks snatched,
harassed on the subway

often by young black men.

People just said,
"Oh, how terrible.

How terrible."

Everyone turned against
them, except a few.

Woman: The good news is, she
continues to improve neurologically

from her attack.

For the first time, she
called her father "Dad."

She did simple arithmetic.

Her brain is working, still
abnormally... she thought

the year was 1952... but
her brain is working.

She's getting better, and
so far she looks good.

Woman: The medical case
of the 28-year-old jogger

continues to improve.

She is undergoing physical
and psychological therapy

at a Connecticut hospital.

The young woman attacked has
apparently made a remarkable

recovery, although she
reportedly cannot recall any

details about the attack.

McCray: When I was bailed out,
I thought the case was over.

I thought the truth came out.

I didn't know nothing about
bail until I got home.

My mother explained to me, "No, it's bail.
We paid for you to get out."

We still got to
go on with this."

Hancock: The police controlled
the story from the beginning.

They created the story and the
theory, and all the pieces

fell into place.

The authorities release a
chronology to the press

of what this wilding
was all about.

Together at about
8:50 P.M., they entered...

Dwyer: The newspapers
love chronologies.

We call 'em tick-tocks.

We like to say, "Here's how
this night of terror unfolded"

in the park."

At 8:55, they
attacked an older male.

The timeline says the kids did these attacks
at this place with the homeless guy,

at this place with the taxi
driver, over there with

the bicycle rider, and
then with people running

around the reservoir.

At 9:25...

They did various acts of malice
or mischief with these folks.

Now, those people reported
these things either

simultaneously or right
after to the police.

So there is a
clear-cut timeline.

And what they do is they
append to the end of this

sequence of crimes the
attack on the jogger.

Then something happens.

Her movements that night
start to become defined.

And all of a sudden we find out
when she left her house,...

What route she normally
took around the park.

And with not necessarily
absolute certainty,

but with a good degree of
certainty you can figure out

that Trisha Meili should
have been in the park

around the place where she was
attacked at around 20 after 9:00.

We know for certain that at
that time, those kids were

beating up, hassling other
people on the reservoir,

South of that
spot in the park.

They weren't at that part of
the park at the time she would

have been there.

And if you watch the videotape
confessions, it turns out they

actually don't know where
the crime took place;

they don't know
when it took place;

and they don't know
how it took place.

They just know
that it happened.

Kassin: The problem is, once you form
a strong belief that somebody is

guilty of a crime,

the contradictory
details are just that.

They're details but they
don't fundamentally

change our belief
in their guilt.

But when the DNA results
come back and none of their

DNA is present, that should
have stopped the investigation

in its tracks and they should
have at least paused and moved

in another direction.

Warren: Harlan Levy was a
DNA prosecutor at the time.

And he recalls how Elizabeth Lederer
said, "Please, come to my office."

And he could sense
urgency in her voice.

And she said, "Look, I
feel like I've been kicked"

"in the stomach.

"There's no DNA
match whatsoever

to any of these boys."

Kassin: It is improbable, given
the nature of this crime

and the scene, that these boys
would not have left a single

trace of themselves on the scene or
the scene a single trace on them.

The improbability of
that is striking.

But the decision was we can
still prosecute this case.

And the argument we will make
to the jury is just because we

didn't get all of them,
doesn't mean we didn't get

some of them.

They now created a scenario by
which there is a 6th perpetrator

a 6th perpetrator
who mysteriously

doesn't appear in any
of the confessions.

But even if they were correct,
that 6th perpetrator's

absence in their confessions
makes the confessions

factually incorrect.

That should have
been the dilemma.

Dwyer: The trail in the grass at the
very spot where she was taken down

is 18 inches wide, that wide.

You can't tell me that 5 kids
or 10 or whatever the number is

that were supposedly
involved in this wilding

dragged this woman off the road
and left an 18-inch-wide trail.

That trail was a photograph of
the beginning of this attack.

And in that picture there are
not 5 kids, there are only

2 people: The victim
and her assailant.

Reyes: I asked her
to get undressed.

When she was coming towards
me, I picked up the knife.

And I shoved the knife
and I caught her hair.

And she was saying,
"Ah, you stabbed me."

And I don't know even where,
I kept on stabbing her,

and I don't know what
places I got her.

I see her on the floor,
shaking and nervous,

so I run out the door.

Dwyer: Matias Reyes was a young
man living essentially by himself

in his late teenage years.

He would steal Walkmans,
he would steal watches,

he would steal jewelry.

Then he started sexually
assaulting women,

attacking women all
around that neighborhood.

On April 17, 1989, just two days
before the jogger was attacked,

he attacked a woman in the
northern part of Central Park.

But the woman noticed that he
had fresh stitches on his chin,

and she told the
police about this.

And a young detective went
to the hospitals in the area

and found out that there had
been a guy named Matias Reyes

who had these
stitches on his chin.

That was ignored.

He was the "East Side Rapist"
that we'd been covering

in the "Daily News."

And one of the police officers

who was working on
the jogger case

and also working on one of
the rapes that Reyes has

been accused of, has the
DNA markers in both files.

Detective Mike Sheehan...
he knew because he was working

with Linda Fairstein
and Elizabeth Lederer

and all the other detectives...
he knew that there

was no DNA match to these
young Central Park Five.

TV reporter: The only real
evidence the prosecutors have

is the evidence the defendants
gave them: Hours of graphic

videotaped confessions.

Kassin: What is particularly
disturbing about this case

and about so many other cases
like it is that once that

confession is taken and once
that confession is in the air,

it corrupts everything else.

And confessions will trump
DNA, confessions will change

witnesses' testimony,
confessions are irresistibly

persuasive, and almost the
effects can't be reversed.

Rather: Screening for
jurors began today

in a case that shocked New
York and jolted the nation.

Prosecutors are expected
to call 50 witnesses, possibly

including the victim herself.

Woman: Though she has no memory of the
attack, prosecutors expect her to testify.

Her mere appearance will
pack an emotional punch

for the prosecution's case.

Santana Jr.: In the back of my mind, I
knew we wasn't gonna beat this case.

It was in the paper too much.

Too many people
were against us.

Everybody washed
their hands from us,

and I felt like people accepted
whatever happened to us.

It was like, "Whatever happens
to those kids, forget 'em."

McCray: My father, as the trial
came, he left me and my mother.

Disappeared.

I couldn't understand.

And I just, I hated
him after that.

Me and my mother started
going to court by ourself.

Demonstrators, you know
people just shouting,

you know, "Rapist",
"You animal."

"You don't deserve
to be alive."

It just felt like the
whole world hated us.

Joseph: The amazing thing to me
in meeting Antron was that he was

the exact opposite of the way
he was portrayed in the news.

He is a timid, calm,
non-aggressive individual,

not anything as
he was portrayed.

Woman: In her opening argument,
the prosecutor made it clear

their own words would be
the main evidence against

the first three defendants.

Lederer: Where
were you standing?

Santana Jr.: I was on
the side of Kevin.

Lederer: Were you watching?

Santana Jr.: No, I was
grabbing the lady's tits.

It was very hard not to
believe those confessions.

Lederer: What was Anton
doing to her clothes?

Santana Jr.: Trying
to pull them off.

It seemed genuine.

These confessions
seemed genuine.

They didn't seem like they were
rehearsed or made up or anything.

I think that Raymond lied.

It'll come out
that Raymond lied.

He was lying when he was
being asked questions by

the district attorney,

and I think that will come
out very... graphically

in my cross
examination tomorrow.

Woman: Yusef Salaam didn't make
taped statements, but police say he

verbally admitted beating the
female jogger with a lead pipe

while others climbed
on top of her.

Salaam: Bobby burns... He
was a friend of my mom's.

He was originally
a divorce lawyer.

I thought he was a nice guy.

But at one point in time I
remember looking over at him

and I thought he was sleeping.

Santana Jr.: Mentally, you know,
physically it was draining,

not knowing what's going on,

seeing these people get on the
stand, nobody actually saying

you did it.

Woman: ...That there is
another perspective.

Crowd: No more
Scottsboro boys!

No more Scottsboro boys!

Woman: There has been no evidence
in any form that could show me,

for one moment, anything related to his
being anything other than innocent.

Yusef is innocent.

Crowd shouting: No justice.
No peace!

No justice. No peace!

No justice. No peace!

No justice. No peace!

There have been charges
of racism, that authorities

aggressively pursued the case
because the victim is white

and the suspects
Black and Hispanic.

Woman: Meantime, a group of
people came to demonstrate

for the female jogger and
against a regular cadre

of protestors who have
suggested that the jogger's

boyfriend raped her.

Where the jogger's boyfriend?

Where's the
jogger's boyfriend?

Woman: All people should
be outraged about this,

not any particular race.

We need to remember that this
was a human being and people

need to support that.

Woman: She walked with an unsteady
gait, clutched the railing

as she stepped into
the witness stand.

Her scars were evident,

but she spoke clearly in
a strong, sweet voice.

Hancock: She was a miracle
now at this point.

She couldn't contribute
anything to the actual case

because thankfully she
couldn't remember.

But the fact of her being
on the stand galvanized

the public around her and
against these young boys.

McCray: I was like just sitting
there, like looking, like, "Man",

I really hope this
lady can remember."

You know, I'm, like, "Why
she can't remember?"

It's messed up what happened
to her, but I didn't do it.

Woman: With the prosecution resting
its case in the final hour today,

the defense begins its
case tomorrow, starting

with the parents
of Antron McCray.

Joseph: My strategy was obviously
to try to convince the jury that

the statements were not
accurate, were the product

of coercion, should
be inadmissible,

and were not credible.

But when they testified in
court, the police officers

said, "All we did is ask
him what happened."

That seemed to me
to be incredible.

They also denied that
they ever made any

promises whatsoever.

They denied even knowing
Antron was a suspect.

Gold: Even though he had asked him
to tell the truth no matter what

and to bring the clothes he
was wearing, and all kinds

of stuff, that made it perfectly
obvious that he was a suspect,

he said he didn't think
of him as a suspect.

That was just nonsense.

Some of the detectives were obviously
lying through their teeth.

Dwyer: The lawyers in the
case had another defense,

which is they had alibis.

They were not where the jogger
was when she was attacked.

Why?

They were beating
up other people.

That alibi defense
was not offered.

Gold: The only evidence
against Yusef was

the testimony of
McKenna, the detective.

And Burns absolutely
undercut Yusef in the most

terrifying way.

He put into evidence the notes
of McKenna which hadn't been

put into evidence before.

And that was the only
evidence against Yusef.

Santana Jr.: There was
one part during trial

I think Peter Rivera,
my lawyer, he woke up.

And they was talking about
the statements, of how

the statements were
coerced by the police.

I remember him reading
something, and I heard him...

I heard him whisper it.

He didn't say it loud
but he sat next to me.

He said, "They didn't do it."

And I heard him say that.

And I said, "All right, well,
maybe now he gonna fight."

But it was too late.

Gold: No blood on the kids.

Nobody could identify them.

It was just a
question of believing

the confessions or not.

And it was very hard to imagine
why anybody would make up

something that not only
incriminates them but is full

of details that sound like
they actually happened.

Santana Jr.: It got to one point where
they pulled me, Yusef, and Antron

in the conference room.

And the lawyer says, "You know,
we're gonna lose this case."

What we're planning to do is see
if we can get you a plea deal."

Salaam: And I remember telling them,
you know, "You guys can cop out."

"But if I did something,
I would cop out.

"I would want the least amount
of time for what I did.

But if I didn't do anything, you can
give me the rest of my life in prison."

You know, I didn't know what
that meant back then, but I

just knew that there would be
no way that I would cop out

for something
that I didn't do.

They said, "Well, it has to be all
three of you guys or it's nobody."

And so we, you know, we
looked at each other.

We was like, "Well,
guess it's nobody."

Coming out. Let's roll.

The crimes and the colors in
this case have been a focus

of attention here for
more than a year.

It will now be up to a jury to
decide the guilt or innocence

of the defendants.

John McKenzie, ABC
News, New York.

It is day 10 of deliberations
and the jogger jury appears to

be going back to what
they were thinking

about on day one.

Were those damaging videotaped
confessions coerced by cops,

overeager to solve the case?

Joseph: Each day that

the jury remained out,

I started to get a
little more optimistic.

People were shocked.

What's taking them so long?
They confessed to it!

I was going nuts,
quite frankly.

I mean, everyone was blaming
the fact that we were there

so long on me.

And I had to fight with my
fellow jurors to consider

the discrepancies between
the 3 statements,

but it didn't matter to them.

If they confessed, they
confessed, and that was that.

Everyone's hurling
imprecations at me and

telling me what a rat I am.

And I just went along with it
at the end because,

frankly, I was wiped out.

I found some cockamamie
excuse to vote guilty,

just to get outta there.

Santana Jr.: When the verdict
came out, they brung us out.

The courtroom was packed.

As they started to read,
everything kinda got numb.

McCray: I remember
standing there and just,

they found me guilty.

That's when I was just...
the world just collapsed.

Salaam: My whole
insides dropped.

Just... like this is crazy.

Are you... are you kidding me?

Like, I couldn't
believe it at all.

McCray: I couldn't hear nothing after that.
I just sat down.

I looked back at my mother.
She was crying.

You know, that was it.

Woman: After the jury foreman,
a law school graduate...

One of my friends had a
radio, and then I heard it.

Woman, continuing: Guilty, guilty, guilty
on rape, robbery, riot, and assault...

Tears came out of my eye.

And I was mad.

Woman, continuing: 16-year-old McCray
clenched his jaw and brushed away tears.

15-year-old Santana
looked wide-eyed ahead,

while Salaam stared at the jurors,
then back at the courtroom.

Pure anguish.

Joseph: Antron leaned over to me
and said, "Thank you very much"

for all of your efforts."

That's not something that you
see from clients in general

and certainly not something
you would expect to see

from a young man,

and I truly appreciated it.

McCray: I just looked at him, and I
was like, "Thank you for helping me."

He did his best.

He did his best, you
know, in my eyes.

Santana Jr.: They
took me out first.

They asked for my belt,
they asked for my laces.

And then Yusef and Antron came
out like a little bit after me.

And then we cried.

We cried inside the bull pen.

We didn't... it was like you
didn't wanna show them that,

you know, because you didn't
want them to see defeat.

So you know we did it
when we went in the back.

Woman: The defendants'
families left the courtroom

quickly, in tears.

They left without
their teenage sons.

All right!

Thank you!

Law and order in the nation's
largest city seemed to get

a boost tonight as the first
three youths to be tried

in the Central Park jogger
case were found guilty

of gang rape and brutal
assault and robbery.

Woman: You're pleased
with the verdicts?

I am.

How much of a help has your
detectives... have your detectives

been to you during this case?

Lederer: They've been the best.
They're terrific.

Woman: Were you concerned about
the lack of genetic evidence?

A lot of people made a big
deal about that, that none

of the semen from the
defendants matched that

that was found in the jogger.

I think, because
there's another trial,

it's better not to
discuss the evidence.

Woman: How do you feel about
the prospect of another trial?

I think I could use a
vacation before we start.

- Are you going to give it to her?
- I'm going to give it to her.

Richardson: They
offered me a plea.

And I said, "I will never plead to
anything 'cause I was innocent."

And that we gonna fight this
the whole way through."

It was just really a circus.

At this time, I was 16 now.

So it was already two years
of going through that.

Wise: I'm just goin' from
Rikers Island, back and forth,

goin' to this court
thing like it's a job.

Her only argument on me
is my confession tapes.

Lederer: Did you
hold her legs down?

Wise, on tape: I hold her legs
down for what? 5 seconds.

Wise: So I'm lookin' at
this like..."That's me?

"Is that me? She usin'
me against me."

16-year-old Kevin Richardson
has been quiet through most

of the trial, but
his mother has not.

Cuffie: He was set
up, he was set up.

Richardson's attorney

says he won't claim his client's
taped confession was coerced.

Instead, he'll argue
Richardson was with the gang

but never took part
in any of the crimes.

Wise's attorney said he'll
try to show the confessions

were coerced.

By putting him under
continuous pressure

for 1 hour and 24 minutes,

after he had been interrogated
for over 24 hours,

that amounts to pressure.

I was asked from my
lawyer, Colin Moore,

do I wanna testify?

And the D.A., she came up
there tearin' me apart.

I had wanted to get up and
say, "Woman you don't know me!"

You talkin' like you know me.
You don't know me."

Black: The reporters
were runnin',

and people were runnin', and we
were like, "What's goin' on?"

And somebody said,
"The verdict is in."

Richardson: The first thing
I heard was "Guilty,"

and everything else was
just like fading out.

Wise: The judge said,
"How do you find?"

"Guilty: Assault, riot,
and sexual abuse."

So that was that.

I remember being handcuffed
right on the spot,

and that's when I felt
completely alone,

'cause, you know, before I had my family
at least supportin' me, you know.

But at that point once the gates
closed and I was in the cell,

and I just thought my life
was pretty much over.

Get the... out of my face!

Outside the courthouse,

supporters of the two
teenagers erupted

with violent emotion.

Get the... out!

Inside, 16-year-old Kevin
Richardson cried loudly.

His mother screamed, "We
love you", and collapsed,

later to be taken
to a hospital.

18-year-old Korey Wise
shouted, "Racism,"

as he was led from court.

The prosecutor was taken
from court under heavy guard

as an angry crowd
swirled around her.

You lying ...! You lied!

This was the second
trial in the jogger case.

Last summer, three teenagers
were convicted of rape

and assault and are now
serving their juvenile terms.

This is the test Mayor
Koch had laid out.

He was out of office now but
people felt the system had passed.

Richardson: I went to a maximum
security for juveniles.

Me and Yusef Salaam, we wound
up being in the same place.

I remember sayin' that we just
have to stay strong together

and try to get through
this together 'cause

all we have is each other
right at this point.

Santana Jr.: In the beginning, it was
very hard because they perceived me

as this was a rapist
and, uh... he committed

one of the most heinous crimes
in New York State history.

You could be the most peaceful
person, but then you come to

the point where you have to
defend yourself to avoid

possibly being beaten, or
worse, even, you know, killed.

So I had to adjust to that
environment and basically

I had to grow up really fast.

McCray: And it's real hectic in
there, you know, people dying

over cigarettes.

It's real crazy.

Santana Jr.: Why me?

Cursed God out a
coup of times.

You know, my faith was gone.

I lost that, um, ah...

Just my faith was
gone and, um...

I didn't, um...
Know what to do.

My father came
once in a while.

He apologized to me, but
I didn't accept it.

My mother came a lot.

I mean, there was sometimes I
had to tell her to stay home

because the weather
would be so messed up.

She'd still come.

Wise: When I heard that
my dad had passed,

it was hurtin', uh...

It was hurting and I would
think, surely think, he just...

he drunk hisself to death.

You know, through... what do they call that?
Cirrhosis of the liver?

But no one shared it with
me or gave me the chance

to come down.

So I just learned it
and that was that.

That was that.

But as time passed, I
started to make changes.

I was able to get my G.E.D.

I was able to get a
degree, you know.

I got an associate's.

I jumped on the opportunity
to go to college.

It was a real graduation,
the Dean and everybody.

Salaam: I was able to get a
college degree before they took

education out of prison.

McCray: They stopped the program,
so I didn't get a degree.

After that, I just started doing
trades and stuff like that.

Like I worked in the tailor
shop, and that was like

the highest-paying
job in prison.

I think it was, like,
30 cents an hour.

woman on radio: Good
afternoon, 47 degrees...

In New York,
republican Rudolph Giuliani

defeated incumbent
David Dinkins...

Mayor Dinkins' handling

of the Black on Jewish Crown
Heights rioting hurt him.

Giuliani promises tougher
approaches to homelessness

and crime...

Giuliani: Squeegee operators
and excessive noise

and aggressive panhandling...

Woman: Crime has plunged 33%

from the same month
a year ago...

Since 1990,

homicides have fallen
dramatically in New York...

Brokaw: New York City is
no longer a crime capital.

Richardson: I came
up to parole.

And my hearing lasted
a couple of minutes.

I walked in.

You know, said who I was.

They looked at the time
that I'd been there

and realized that I haven't
gotten into no trouble

the whole time.

They just wanted
to know one thing.

They said, "Did you
do the crime?"

I said, "No."

They told me, "Have
a good day."

McCray: Got my stuff,
my personal stuff,

had my money in my account,

and they took me
to the bus stop.

Called my mother
every stop we made,

let her know where I was at.

And I'm just looking
around, like, wow, free.

Got home, forgot the
building I lived in

'cause all the
buildings look alike.

I went in the wrong building.

My mother and my
father ran downstairs.

The day he was actually
released he said, "They're

sending me home on a bus."

We're like, "Nope. We're
comin' to get you."

And of course, my family
was crying which made me

start to cry.

And everybody jumped up. You
know, we jumped for joy

and we got in the car,

and we sped off and
never looked back.

And we drove. It was about
3 hours from the city.

And so we went straight,
like, not even stoppin'.

Beautiful.

Santana Jr.: When
I was released...

Best feeling in the
world, you know.

I said, "Wow."

You know, I got
a fresh start.

I can try to pick up, put
my life back together.

Yeah, he came home.

And I was happy he's
home and all that.

But you know, I brung a lot
of stuff with me, you know,

that I didn't
even know exists.

I loved to stay inside my
room, 'cause my room was like

the size of a cell.

I would go in the shower
and wash in my boxers,

wash my boxers in the shower.

I had this aggression.

You know, if I'm in a room
with too many people,

I can talk to you but I won't
give you eye-to-eye contact

'cause I'm too busy
watching the room.

McCray: When I got home, my
father, he was living, you know,

with my mother because
they were back together.

But I didn't really...
I didn't talk to him.

We lived in the same house, but
I didn't even talk to him.

I noticed he was getting sick,
'cause he lost a lot of weight.

He was real sick.
I didn't even care.

My mother, she would
try to get us to talk.

I was just like, "You don't
remember what he did to us?"

"You know, he left you."

My mother, you know, got
that call, and she was like,

"Your father just
passed away."

I was still was
like, "All right."

But seeing him laying
there, it just hit me.

You know, he used to
be my best friend.

Richardson: I was a sex
offender, labeled as that.

And I had to register,
um, every month.

I applied for the post
office at one point.

And I was about
to get the job.

But I'm an honest person and
so they asked me have I ever

been incarcerated?

I put yes.

And they didn't hire me.

McCray: I just wanted
to get out of New York.

I had a cousin that
lived in Maryland.

I kind of liked Maryland.

So I went out there job
hunting for the whole day,

and on the spot I got
a sanitation job.

Santana Jr.: Months went by
where I didn't have no money,

and there's nothin'
I could do.

I can't get a job.

I was becoming a burden.

You know, here I am in my
father's house, I'm eating

the food, you know,
'cause I'm a bigger guy

and I'm not contributin'.

I said, "I can't function."

That was my breaking point.

And so I said, "You know what?"

"I'm gonna just, I'm gonna
get in the drug game."

And I started to sell drugs.

Dwyer: All of the jogger
defendants have gone home

except one, Korey Wise.

He was the eldest of the
group convicted and he had

the longest sentence.

And he had stopped going to
the parole board... didn't even

bother going anymore
to deny his guilt.

One day in late 2001,
Matias Reyes meets him

at the Auburn prison.

Warren: This is the first
time they had seen each other

since 1989, when both of
them were at Rikers Island.

And at that time, they had a
little incident in the TV room.

And it almost, you know
escalated to blows.

Wise: He said, "I would
like to apologize to you."

We had a fight at Rikers Island
about a TV, and so forth.

I said, "Matias, ain't
about nothin' man. Ha!"

"We here. It's not gonna
free neither one of us.

Don't worry about it."

Reyes doesn't say
anything to him,

but he starts talking to
people in the prison.

"Hey, I met somebody who's
doing time for a crime that he

didn't have anything to do
with that I did myself."

They send up an investigator,
and he takes this statement.

They send it down to the
Manhattan D.A.'s office which

has no idea that this case
from 13 years earlier,

which has long been stored and
forgotten by everybody except

the people involved,
is suddenly gonna come

back to life.

I showed them the top of the
entrance, the direction she came by.

I showed them where I picked
up the tree branch and down

the road where I
dragged her in.

I'm the one that did this.

When I saw Korey Wise in
Auburn, I saw in his eyes,

you know, the suffering that
he's been going through,

to know that a man has
suffered 13 years of his life

in jail for something
that he has not done,

to know that all these kids
got arrested for something

that they didn't do.

You want to know something?

I have done everything
possible that I can come

forward and admit the truth.

I'm to the point where if
people don't do something,

or if they don't do
what's right, then, hey,

there's nothing else I can do.

To hear this after all the
trials and tribulations

that I done been through...

the scuffle, the jumping
on, the stabbin',

the whole unneeded package...

It felt so good!

Dwyer: Morgenthau's office begins
an exhaustive re-examination

of the case.

And they pulled out the old
files and they found the

unknown semen from the rape
kit, and they matched Reyes.

Then they began to
interview Reyes.

Reyes steps in 13 years later
and immediately gives off

details that turn out to be
verified and accurate that

the police didn't know.

He described her as having
black running tights on

and a white T-shirt.

That's what Ms. Meili
was wearing.

He tells them about
the Walkman.

Turns out she did
run with a Walkman.

Nobody knew it 'cause it
wasn't found at the scene.

He describes how he
took off her sneakers.

When the police came on the
scene and they found her,

her sneakers were... one
sneaker was in one location,

another sneaker was
in another location.

He talked about taking her keys
and trying to get her address

and then tossing the keys.

Well, that explained the dilemma
about where her key was

'cause her door was locked.

These were details that even
the most assiduous student

of the case would have had
a hard time coming up with

as some kind of fake story.

There was no question that
Reyes knew what had happened.

And his DNA was present on the
scene and the way in which

he committed this crime was
perfectly consistent with

the way he committed
other crimes.

It stands to reason
that Reyes was giving

an accurate statement.

McCray: I worked
the third shift.

It was from 8:00 to
6:30 in the morning.

I got home, got out of the
shower, about to watch

"Sportscenter," and
my cousin called.

She was like, "Tron,
Tron, turn on CNN."

And I'm like, "Why?
What's going on?"

She was like, "The truth came out.
The truth came out."

"The truth came out? What
are you talking about?"

"Your case! Somebody
that did it,

he told the truth, he confessed.
He did it."

And I'm like,
"Are you serious?

"Are you serious?" And I
just started crying.

New DNA evidence conclusively
connects Reyes to the victim.

Santana, Sr.: My son
called me on a Saturday,

and I said, "I want
you to sit down."

I got news for you."

And he said, "What
news you got for me?"

"Get a chair, sit down.
I'm gonna tell you."

He says, "Oh, you know, they
found the guy that did it."

And I said, "What?"

And he says, "Yeah,
they found the guy that

committed your case."

And I said... man,
I gotta curse.

I said, "Get the fuck outta here."

He said, "No, for real.
They found the guy."

"You're gonna be
comin' home soon."

And I'm like, "Yeah, OK.
Whatever."

He's the only one
that has the hope.

But I'm like, "You know what?
I'll talk to you later."

It started raining outside.

And I'm looking out the
window, and I'm like,

"Damn. Did they really
find this dude?"

And I'm thinking about this.
Then I start crying.

Why are we here?
The Central Park five!

Why are we here?
The Central Park five!

In the snow!

Dwyer: There was a motion
by the defense to overturn

the convictions on the grounds
of newly discovered evidence.

And Morgenthau not only
said that the new evidence

likely would have led
to a different verdict,

he said to me and he said
to others, "If we knew then

what we know now, we wouldn't
have indicted these guys."

Koch: My faith in Robert
Morgenthau is such that I don't

quarrel with his decision.

Warren: This is step one.

The response from the district
attorney's office has been to

concede, or agree, or consent
to our application that

the verdicts be set aside.

The judge has to make a
formal ruling in that regard.

We expect for that ruling
to be made forthwith.

Dinkins: I wanna share
with you a statement from

District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau's office.

The office said,

"A comparison of the statement... statements,
reveals troubling discrepancies."

"Accounts given by the five
defendants differed from one

another on the specific
details of virtually every

major aspect of the crime:

Who initiated the attack;

Who knocked the victim down;

Who undressed her;
Who struck her;

Who held her;
Who raped her;

What weapons were used

in the course of the assault."

And went into the sequence
of events the attack took place.

And some of what they said
was simply contrary to

established fact.

Now, this is a damned shame.

Warren: I have an
application at this time

on the behalf of all of the
defendants: Korey Wise,

Yusef Salaam, Kevin
Richardson, Raymond Santana,

and Antron McCray, all the
indictments against each one

of them in their
entirety be dismissed.

Motion is granted.

Everyone have a very Merry
Christmas. Happy New Year.

Thank you!

Woman: The judge handling the review
of the Central Park jogger case

has just ruled in the
last hour that those

convictions against the five
young men must be set aside.

It is a stunning reversal in
one of the most controversial

crime cases in the
city's history.

That was the best Christmas,
ever... first... excuse me.

Best Christmas gift ever,
and me and my mother,

we just hugged each
other in our apartment

for seemed like forever.

That was a beautiful thing.

Still is.

I would always see these photos
of my mother walking around

with a "Yusef is
Innocent" shirt.

And then when they
dropped all the charges,

she had her coat open

and the "Yusef is Innocent"
shirt on and this huge smile

on her face like, not only
did I told you so, but I'm

so happy today.

Woman: Now 4 of the 5 are out...
they served long prison terms,

but Raymond Santana
remains behind bars

on an unrelated conviction.

But the length of time that
he's serving on a drug charge

was based upon the fact that
he was a predicate felon,

his conviction in the
Central Park jogger case.

So lawyers close to the case representing
the five are telling me that they expect

to challenge that and try to
get Raymond Santana home to

his parents before Christmas.

Santana Jr.: It was celebration.

All the guys jumped around.
They, "Waaaa!"

They were all cheering.

"You goin' home. It's over.
You goin' home."

The correctional officer said,
"Well you know, there's a lot

of people out there."

"You wanna go through the back?
I'll get a car for you."

"You know, you can go
out the back way."

And I said, "Well,
I'm a free man."

"I'm goin' out the front!
Open that door and let's go!"

Amid a crush of cameras,
Raymond Santana left jail

a free man, much to
his father's joy.

I always believed he was
innocent, from the beginning.

Santana Jr.: It took me back to
that perp walk that they do.

And then now this time,
it was a free man walk.

And it was definitely great to
walk through that, you know,

and to hold my head up high.

And I said, "I told you
we were innocent."

Santana, Sr.: This
is a miracle.

And let me tell you, when I was
in that yard, I was saying

I need to pray for him a lot.

They say if your prayer don't
come out it did for me.

Because I pray a lot for
that kid, and look.

That was the happiest
day of my life, boy.

Wilder: I felt ashamed, actually,
for New York and I also felt

extremely angry, because
their innocence never got

the attention that their guilt did.

The furor around prosecuting
them still drowns out

the good news of
their innocence.

These were 5 kids who we
tormented, we falsely accused,

we pilloried in the press,
we attacked, we invented

phrases for the imagined
crimes that we're

accusing them of.

And then we put them in jail.

We falsely convicted them.

And when the evidence
turned out that they were

innocent and they were
released, we gave a modest nod

to fairness, and we walked
away from our crime.

It was a more interesting
story when it was all about

a white woman that was
raped by 5 black boys.

The coverage in 2002 was worse
than what had happened in 1989.

More resistant to
fact, more obstinate

about being wrong.

The police department
commissioned this panel led by

a very distinguished lawyer
named Mike Armstrong,

to review what had happened
in the jogger case.

And the police department
found that the police

department had done nothing
wrong even though it had let

the right man get away and
apparently had put the wrong

people in prison.

This was institutional
protectionism that was going on.

Hancock: Linda Fairstein made a
huge name for herself in part

because of this case.

It was extremely important
to her profession

and her reputation.

So she's got a lot to lose by
saying, "I got everything wrong"

"and I railroaded these
kids into jail."

Whatever you do in life,
you make mistakes,

and you either face your
mistakes or you don't.

I don't think the press
faced its mistakes.

I don't think the police
department faced the truth

of what had happened because
the truth of what had happened

is almost unbearable.

By prosecuting the wrong
people for the Central Park

jogger case, Matias Reyes
continued to hurt,

maim, and kill.

And they could have had
him but they got stuck

with a mistake.

And they're still
invested in that mistake.

Patricia Meili...

My brother, all the boys,

all of our families...

all of us are victims.

Nobody wants to look at the
damage, the terror that they

put my family through.

Nobody wants to take
responsibility.

I want us to remember what
happened that day and be

horrified by ourselves because
it really is a mirror

on our society.

And rather than tying it up
in a bow and thinking that

there was something that
we can take away from it

and we'll be better people, I
think what we really need to

realize is that we're
not very good people.

And we're often not.

Santana Jr.: I'm
always behind.

Those years that it took
from me, I lost a lot.

And even now at the age
of 36 where I should be

fully in a career, have a
house, a car, maybe married,

I don't have any of that.

And so I don't know how to
regain that stuff anymore.

So I'm just here.

I lost my youth.

I lost 7 years of my life.

I lost that sense of being
youthful and missing the

average things of going to
school and going to the prom

and just livin' like average
14, 15 year-old kid.

Wise: You can forgive
but you won't forget.

You won't forget
what you done lost.

No money could bring
that time back.

No money could bring the life
that was missin' or the time

that was taken
away bring back.

Nothin'.

Salaam: It hasn't become
easier to live as an adult.

It's become harder.

It's always more difficult to
do something if you have this

huge gap of your life
taken away from you.

And it's not like just because
they said, "OK, we're

vacating the convictions", that
that vacated the whole prison term.

That whole prison
term happened.

It was a reality. We
really went through that.

McCray: I still
struggle every day,

but I made it, you know.

Came home, didn't
get in trouble.

Worked ever since I came home.

Pay taxes, take
care of my kids.

I'm doing the best I can, so...

I told them I was going to make it.
Told 'em.

The truth came out.

Truth came out.