Front Burner - The lessons of the Central Park Five

Episode Date: June 6, 2019

A Netflix miniseries has rekindled interest in the case of the Central Park Five who became poster children for bias in the justice system and served decades for a crime they did not commit. Filmmaker Sarah Burns on why the case is critically important today.

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Uncover bomb on board. Investigating the biggest unsolved mass murder in Canada. CP Flight 21. Get the Uncover podcast for free on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts. Available now. Hello, I'm Jamie Poisson. 30 years ago, in New York City, five teenagers were convicted for the beating and rape of a woman in Central Park. They spent 37 years combined in prison for crimes they did not commit. They became known as the Central Park Five, and their story is the basis of a new Netflix miniseries directed by Ava DuVernay.

The entire case became a huge story. by Ava DuVernay. The entire case became a huge story. Five poor Black and Latino boys accused of raping a white woman in a city desperately struggling with crime. I'm talking to Sarah Burns today. Her documentary about the Central Park Five has been cited as inspiration for DuVernay's new series. We're going to talk about the case and why it continues to resonate to this day. This is Frontburner. Sarah, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. Thanks for having me. So let's start here. Antron McRae, Kevin Richardson, Yusuf Salam, Raymond Santana,

Corey Wise. Back in 1989, who were these boys? These five boys, young men, children, really, were 14, 15, and 16 years old. They all lived in Harlem, not far from Central Park, some of them in a building called the Schomburg Towers, right at the corner of the park at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue, the others within a few blocks. And they were kids, they had different experiences. They didn't really know each other. Yusef and Corey were friends, they lived in the same building, and they were pretty close. But the others were just kids from the neighborhood. They went to different schools, they had separate lives. and they collided on April 19th, 1989. Tell me about that collision.

They, all five of them, along with at least 20, 25 other kids from the neighborhood, went into Central Park on that night of April 19th, 1989. And there was a kind of loose-knit group. I mean, people knew each other. They all were connected to somebody in the group. They'd followed someone to the park or something. And I think people had different intentions that night. And there were kids among that group who wanted to make some trouble.

And so that group goes into the park and weaves its way through down towards the reservoir. And they throw rocks at taxi cabs driving past and some kids harass and threaten some people riding bikes. And ultimately, some people in that group beat up a male jogger running around the reservoir pretty severely. They hassled a guy walking around with his food and took his food and hit him. It's not clear that these five in particular participated in any of those things. In fact, the attack on the male jogger that was serious, and he landed in the hospital for a few days. We know who the primary assailant was. It was not these guys. It was another kid who everyone else identified. But there was a little bit of

mayhem going on. But these guys were in and around or saw part of it. Some of them, Corey, left early. Some of them were actually arrested that evening because some of these folks who'd encountered this group of kids had gone to the precinct in Central Park. And so there were police officers in and around the park who were now looking for these kids. But in the middle of the night, two men walking through the park, this is now 1.30, 2 o'clock in the morning, come across on a path in a very secluded part of the park the body of a woman who has been brutally raped and beaten and left for dead. The female was alive. She was gagged around the mouth and her hands were tied to her chin with the same piece of linen or cloth. And she is in absolutely devastating condition. She had lost most of the blood in her body through wounds on her head. This was a really horrific crime. She suffered two skull fractures, extreme blood loss, and hypothermia. Her body temperature

was only 80 degrees. And as soon as she's found and she's brought to the hospital, she's not even expected to survive. There's an officer at the hospital who calls the Central Park Precinct and says, hang on to those kids. Five youths are in custody and are being questioned. They were picked up last night not far from the crime scene. The youngest is only 13. Okay, and what does that set in motion? Well, that begins this process of interrogations that lasts for several days.

These five, Raymond, Yousef, Corey, Kevin, Antron, became the focus of this investigation. And I think that that happened in part because of their relative youth and innocence, even relative to some of the other kids in the park. They were most vulnerable to these interrogation techniques that they experienced. And they, in many cases, didn't have the support of parents with them. So the rule at the time was that anyone under 16 had to have a parent or legal guardian with them. The first statement, he said he had nothing to do with it. And they put pressure on him. A lot of pressure. He was slapped around. And it is our contention that whatever statements he made were the product of psychological and physical coercion. You know, I know that the defense lawyers that they had argued that the confessions were coerced,

and there wasn't actually any physical evidence tying them to this crime, but they were convicted. Right. And tell me a little bit about that. They endured these long interrogations where they were, promises were made, threats were made. They were told that they would be able to go home if they helped out. I think they were very naive and believed that they could be witnesses. You know, classic kind of bad cop, good cop. They're terrified.

They're exhausted. They haven't slept. They haven't eaten. And they just want to get out of there. And so after this long process, they gave these statements. Yousef Salam never even signed anything or did anything before his mother interrupted, but he'd been having this interrogation with these really seasoned detectives. And they gave these statements, and ultimately the other four besides Yousef

agreed to put those statements on videotape. But the tapes were after all of these hours that you don't get to see. Told me to go ahead, you're going to give the story, what you had said to me and the rest of my co-workers. You're going to go ahead and give the story. I'm going to be in a room, and I want to make sure you do it. Pick up a small hand rock and hit across sure you do it. Picked up a hand rock, a small hand rock, and hit her close to the face with it.

How many times did he smack her? I think twice. And did she keep screaming? Mm-hmm. And he just kept smacking her. Did somebody stuff something in her mouth? No. He picked up the brick and hit her with the brick twice.

They're incredibly powerful evidence. And 1989 was the very beginning of DNA testing. It was a brand new technology. And so they did find a DNA sample on the victim. And they did test it and compare it to not only these five, but others who'd been in the park that night. And the results were negative. And so there was, I think, no sense of skepticism of that. And confessions are a really powerful piece of evidence. It's very hard for people to imagine that they would give a false

confession. Right, right. Why would I admit to something if I didn't do it? Why would someone do that? I mean, it's really irrational. And unless you've been in that situation, as these kids were, and again, 14, 15, and 16 years old, it's really hard to understand how that happens. And so they went ahead to trial, even with the DNA test coming back negative. But they plowed ahead. I think, again, it was this freight train. Everyone had decided that this was the story, and they were going to push through based on that narrative. I don't want to understand what motivates someone to engage in this kind of horror. I want, rather than to understand him, I want him punished.

I can't. Absolutely I won't. Arguing, he's saying that this is racist. I'm saying let them decide it in the courtroom before they come out and protest on the sidewalk. And then what happened? At this time, the New York City crime rate was really sky high in 1989. And I know that this case captured the attention of the city. And why do you think that was? Yeah, this was a huge media story. I think it's hard for anyone living in New York City today who wasn't there then to really process how different New York City was at that time. The crime rates were on a different scale than they are today. I mean, we were almost at the peak murder rate that came within the next couple of years that reached

over 2,000 murders per year, which is many, many times what the murder rate is today. It's closer to 300, I believe. So there was a degree of fear in New York City at that time. People expected to be mugged. My experience, they tried to knock me down, you know, but they were small enough. I just knocked them away and I kept jogging. Did they try to mug you, do you think? Well, they would have, but they were kind of small, you know. In the bushes, you always see somebody creeping out of the bushes.

Really? Oh, yes. You see that a lot? You see children, yes, young people. You never know if it's safe or not. It felt like a part of life living in New York City. You would expect to have your wallet stolen on the way to work. That was just something that happened.

And at the same time, there was a tabloid media in New York, mostly the New York Daily News and the New York Post, but also another newspaper called Newsday that were competing for readership. They were all single fold tabloid style newspapers, local daily papers. And they were really in a kind of arms race for sensational headlines in that competition. And so this was a kind of perfect story to respond to that fear, to kind of encourage that fear, and for the press to run with. There was a lot of animal language and imagery. This was very common. So the crime

came to be known as wilding, or the actions, the supposed actions of these kids in the park was called wilding. Right, the terrorizing and the beating up of this jogger, the male jogger. Yes, all of it. All of it combined was this idea of wilding. Once the young suspects were arrested, New York learned a terrifying new word. The teenagers said they had been out wilding. Savage beating and gang rape last Wednesday night

has provoked outrage in a city famous for indifference. It's called wilding, a night-long spree of violence and robbery, and members of teenage street gangs in New York City say they do it for fun. Okay. And they were called a wolf pack and savage, and this language was dehumanizing, and it has its roots going way back. I mean, you see similar language used to describe the Scottsboro Boys were a group of black teenagers who were falsely accused of rape in 1931 in Alabama. And the newspapers then use those kinds of words, fiends, black brutes,

stuff like that. And you're seeing this parallel kind of language here in 1989. And some of it was really extreme the way they were discussed. I was sort of shocked going back and looking at it and seeing the stuff that was written in relatively recent times. Part of this narrative is the victim in this case is a 28-year-old woman named Tricia Miley, is the victim in this case is a 28-year-old woman named Tricia Miley, right? And so, you know, you bring up the Scottsboro case. These young men in this case were accused of raping a white woman as well. Yes, you absolutely cannot separate race and racism from this story. These were black and brown teenagers from Harlem who were accused of raping a white woman. And the reaction

to it and what you see in that language very much reflects the history in our country of, in particular, black men being accused of raping white women and what that means and what the reaction to that is. And there was a time when that would have, even just the idea of it, even if it was invented, let alone that actually happening, would have led to a lynching. And a lot of the language you see here reflects that. So Pat Buchanan wrote a column that I believe was in the New York Post that was pretty shocking in the language. shocking in the language. He said basically that the eldest of the group, that was Corey Wise, who was 16 years old, should be hung in Central Park. And 14 and 15 year olds were horse whipped and beaten. The park might soon be safe again for our women. I mean, this was published in a

mainstream newspaper. And he's literally calling for a lynching. And like you mentioned before, not that long ago. Not that long ago. This is 30 years ago. You know, had this been the 1920s, the earlier part of the century, we would have all been hanging from trees in Central Park. And when you talk about this freight train, you know, Ed Koch, the mayor of New York at the time, he made so many public statements that just made it seem like he was so certain that these boys were guilty. You know, he would say things like, we have to use the word allegedly now.

When those grandmothers say, but he's a good boy. He never did anything. Don't you believe it? And of course, we all know now that Donald Trump took out four full page ads in the newspaper advocating for the death penalty to come back. And it was in the context of this case, in the context of these young boys being charged. It was within 10 days of this crime. It was very clear that that's what he was talking about. You better believe that I hate the people that took this girl and raped her brutally. You better believe it. And it's more than anger, it's hatred. And I want society to hate her.

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The first 30 days of the Audible membership are free, including a free book. Go to www.audible.ca slash cbc to learn more. The anger hit the streets with sobs of disbelief and threats of violence. A chunk of concrete waved in the air. The sisters of 16-year-old Kevin Richardson venting their grief to guilty verdicts on all the top counts in the Central Park attack. All these young men are convicted and they end up going to jail. And what happens to them when they're in prison? Yeah, so they're all tried as adults.

And when they're convicted, the sentencing is different based on their ages. So Corey Wise, who'd been 16 at the time of his arrest, was not only tried as an adult, but sentenced as an adult. And so from day one, when he was arrested, he was sent to Rikers Island, which is the adult prison jail facility in New York City. I mean, there's a whole effort right now to close Rikers because of the history of violence, of suicide, of terrible conditions there. The others were sent to juvenile facilities, and they were sentenced to five to 10 years. The 14 and 15-year-olds, that was the highest sentence that a juvenile could get. But Corey, who was 16 at the time, just a little bit older, was sentenced as an adult to five to 15 years and served that sentence in maximum security adult prisons in New York State. And so his experience was really strikingly different. I will not say that those juvenile facilities were a picnic at all, but I think they, compared to Corey's experience, they were much safer. At what point are these boys, at some point they become men, at what point are they exonerated?

So they all had served their sentences except for Corey. The rest ended up serving around seven or so years, between seven and eight years. And they all refused to admit any guilt. As soon as they sort of get out of those interrogation rooms, they recant those statements. But they continue to do that during prison. So they're up for parole when expressing remorse as your best shot at getting parole. And none of them did that. They maintained their innocence throughout that. So they were released, just completed their sentences, and tried to go back to their lives. And that was a challenge for them. Raymond Santana actually, after being frustrated at not being able to find work and feeling like he was a burden on his family, turned to dealing drugs

and went back to prison with a much harsher sentence because he was a second time offender because of that. You know, I brung a lot of stuff with me, you know, that I didn't even know exists. I love to stay inside my room because my room was like the size of a cell. I would go in the shower and wash with my boxes, wash my boxes 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 because I'm too busy watching the room. Meanwhile, Corey is still in prison, and about 12 years into his sentence, he meets a guy in the prison where he is named Matias Reyes, who is someone who was serving a life sentence.

He and Corey, Matias Reyes and Corey had actually met before in 1989 at Rikers Island when they were both being held. And Reyes was then being held in advance of a trial. He'd been arrested and charged with a series of rapes, including a rape murder that he had committed on the Upper East Side in New York in 1989. And they had had this encounter at Rikers in 1989, where they argued over what channel the TV should be on. It almost came to blows. They were pulled apart. And then years later, they see each other again. And Reyes comes up to Corey and says, I'm sorry about that fight we had all those years ago. And Corey says, it's no problem. You know, I'm OK.

You know, we're good. And he says, you know, you always maintained your innocence, didn't you? Says, yeah. And they had a nice, a pleasant conversation. And Reyes walked away and started reaching out to people in the prison system about wanting to confess to a crime that someone else was doing time for there. He turned out to be the actual perpetrator. Wow. And were they able to connect him to the crime because his DNA matched the DNA that we've talked about before, the DNA that the police actually found at the crime scene

in the rape of Patricia Miley that didn't match any of the boys? Yes, that DNA test, those 12 years later, did match Reyes. And so the district attorney's office, which was still under Robert Morgenthau, he was the DA back in 1989, He started a real reinvestigation, and they found that the DNA matched, and also that Reyes's story, his explanation of what had happened that night, that he was alone. He always committed crimes alone. Some of the physical violence was around her eyes. He had hit her in the face with a rock, and he had tried to blind some of his other victims.

And so there were these other things, but also just his information, his recall of the details of which direction she was running and exactly where and what he had done in a way that these statements taken from the five within days there had never been accurate. They got the location of the attack wrong, what she was wearing wrong, which direction she was running, what part of the park. I mean, all of this stuff, they never fit the details of the actual crime. And Reyes's 12 years later did. You know, you mentioned before that Reyes was in prison for the murder and rape of another woman and other crimes. And am I right to say that he committed these crimes after the attack on Patricia Miley in Central Park in 1989? Yes, a number of his crimes occurred after this. And the real tragedy upon tragedy here is that these crimes could have been prevented. You've spent so much time with these guys and thinking about this case,

and why do you think the story resonates today? I think the story resonates in part because it's so outrageous. I mean, I was angry when I found out what had happened to them, what they had been through, and how the system treated them at all of these different points. Even when they were exonerated, the press still suggested in many cases that they didn't really deserve to be exonerated. didn't really deserve to be exonerated. It treated it like it wasn't a real, you know, that it was a loophole or something. People didn't know. People didn't know that they were innocent. I think when people learn about what really happened here and how it happened and what that impact was, it makes them angry. That's why this is such an important case is because it's not an isolated case. It's an instructive case. It tells us a lot about the flaws in our justice system, about the racism that can lead to these assumptions that allow people to believe this story, even when it's not a very convincing one. It's not isolated.

And of course, we've seen more contemporary examples of that. Yeah, absolutely. We see it all the time. And there are, you know, we've learned there now been hundreds and more exonerations based on DNA evidence. And you see in 25% of those cases, there were confessions. These men, they're in their mid-lives right now, and many of them have children. They still seem so deeply affected by all of this. Yusuf has described this as an indelible scar on our lives. You never get over something like this.

This is a part of, this is like an indelible scar that you cannot surgically fix. Can you describe for me the way that you've seen that manifest for them? It really is, and it's also changed. That's evolving. When I first met them, it is still really raw. This thing they went through affects them every day. You know, they've now settled the civil suit. It took over a decade, but they settled in 2014 for $41 million.

That changes things. But it doesn't erase what happened. That changes things, but it doesn't erase what happened. I visited with Antron recently, and he was telling me about the way that he thinks about being in the world, and he's still so afraid of being accused of something that he doesn't like being in spaces with only one other person. He said if he goes to the gym and there's just a woman there and no one else, he'll talk to his wife on the phone the whole time. Wow. Or he'll wait to go inside a store until there's someone else there so that no one can accuse him of something. I mean, it affects every decision he makes everywhere he goes.

And that's not something that you can go back and undo. Sarah, thank you so much for this conversation today. I'm so appreciative. Thank you for having me. Since the release of DuVernay's miniseries on the Central Park Five, one of the people who supervised the case, a woman named Linda Fairstein, has had to resign from a number of boards. She also had a literary award rescinded. She's a best-selling author.

Raymond Santana, one of the Central Park Five, had this to say. When you do dirt, you can't run. No matter how long it is, the truth comes out. And even though it's 30 years later, she has to pay for her crime. And so whether it's in the courtroom or whether it's socially, it is what it is. That's all for today. Thanks so much for listening to FrontBurner. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts. It's 2011 and the Arab Spring is raging.

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