The five men wrongfully convicted of raping a 28-year-old investment banker in Central Park in 1989 will receive a total of $40 million in a settlement with New York City, the New York Times reports. In 2002, a man named Matias Reyes, who was in prison for other crimes, confessed to committing the Central Park rape alone, and his account was supported by DNA tests and other evidence. From the Times:
The proposed settlement averages roughly $1 million for each year of imprisonment for the men. That amount would suggest that the city was poised to pay one of the men, Kharey Wise, who spent about 13 years in prison, more than it has in any wrongful conviction case.
The other four men — Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana Jr. — served about seven years in prison.
The settlement still needs to be approved by the New York City comptroller and a federal judge, though the Times’ confident headline—“Five Exonerated…Will Settle Suit” suggests that this is expected. The suit was filed in 2003 and fought for years by the administration of former mayor Michael Bloomberg; new mayor Bill de Blasio had promised a quick settlement.
In 1989, Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in four New York newspapers calling for the men (who were minors at the time of their convictions) to be executed. Ken Burns made a documentary in 2012 about the case in which all five participated in interviews; you can watch segments of the film at PBS’ website.
