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| Central Park Jogger Rape Case Back in Court |
| By Reuters |
| Published: 10/28/2002 |
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Lawyers for five black men imprisoned in the beating and rape of a New York City jogger 13 years ago in Central Park go to court this week in a bid to have their convictions thrown out after new information surfaced in the racially charged case. A convicted rapist said in January that he alone -- not the five youths, all teen-agers at the time -- attacked the white investment banker known as the 'Central Park jogger' on April 19, 1989. His assertion was supported by DNA tests linking him to the crime, which drew national attention and divided the city. Controversy over the case has grown since the rapist's admission, with senior prosecutors reportedly at odds over how to proceed and protests by black civil rights activists, politicians and church leaders demanding the men be cleared. On October 21, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge was to hear arguments over whether statements made by the men more than a decade ago, in which they confessed to the crimes, were coerced and should not have been presented to jurors at the 1990 trial. In one of two videotaped statements made 13 years ago, Kharey Wise, then 16, confessed to prosecutors in detail his participation in the rape and vicious beating. 'This is my first rape. I never did this before. This will be my last,' Wise is heard telling prosecutor Elizabeth Lederer after being arrested in April 1989. The confessions that Wise and four other teen-agers gave police in the presence of parents or guardians were enough to convict them of rape, assault, robbery and riot. Aside from the rape, they were convicted of attacks on a couple on a tandem bicycle, two male joggers and a homeless man. Wise and his four co-defendants, Antron McCray, then 15, Kevin Richardson, then 14, Yusef Salaam, then 15, and Raymond Santana, then 14 -- were given sentences ranging from five to 15 years in prison. They were released after serving seven to 12 years with the exception of Santana, who remains in prison on an unrelated crime. |
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