When They See Us
When They See Usis a four part series based on a case that swept through America’s living rooms. On September 19, 1989 a woman by the name of Patricia Meili was attack in Central Park, located in New York City. The woman was attacked, dragged, beaten and rape. As a result of this crime, the victim was left hospitalized in critical condition with no memory of what had happened to her. The people of New York City wanted justice for the woman who had become known only as “The Central Park Jogger”. The people were outraged.
Prosecutors Linda Fairstein and Elizabeth Lederer headed the investigation of this heinous crime that took the city by storm. Somebody needed to pay for what had happened to this woman. The prosecutor’s office along with the NYPD looked to gather leads to close this case that had gained so much media and political attention. They would stop at no end, even if it took for them to arrest innocent people for crimes that they did not commit.
Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise were just adolescents at the time that the crime occurred. As the saying goes “boys will be boys”, these boys happened to be in Central Park on the evening that all of the “wilding” had taken place. As a result, the police rounded up the adolescents and took them into custody at a precinct in Harlem. These young men were interrogated for a two day span with no parental consent. They were not given any food and coerced into making statements implicating themselves and the others as part of the attack that left a woman in a coma for twelve days.
The movie When They See Ustold the story of the way that these boys suffered as a result of the crime that they were wrongly convicted of. The criminal justice system served these young men a serious injustice. At the time of the trial Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana were only fourteen years old, Antron McCray and Yusef Salaam were fifteen years old. The oldest of the quintet, Korey Wise was just sixteen years old. The quartet that were under the age of sixteen years old were imposed sentences of five to ten years in juvenile correctional facilities. Korey Wise was charged as an adult and was sentenced to five to fifteen years in a maximum state penitentiary where he served twelve years.
In 2002 Matias Reyes confessed to acting alone in the rape and brutal assault of the Patricia Meili. During the time of the confession Reyes was incarcerated for four different rape homicide cases in New York City. By the time of his confession Reyes could not be charged for the crime because the statute of limitations had already expired. It was this confession that exonerated those innocent men after years of suffering. During the incarceration the men known as the Central Park Five had to endure many trials and tribulations that no amount of money can compensate for. These men needlessly suffered mental, physical, emotional and psychological abuse. The system failed them. The sickening part is that there are so many more innocent men and women formerly and currently incarcerated for crimes that they did not commit.
Written by
Regina Annette