Netflix’s “When They See Us” depicts ugliness and truth within US criminal justice system
On April 19, 1989, the lives of five black and brown New York teenagers changed forever.
Kevin Richardson, 14, Raymond Santana, 14, Antron McCray, 15, Yusef Salaam, 15 and 16-year-old Korey Wise, commonly known as the Central Park Five, were wrongfully convicted of a crime that they did not commit and endured unforgettable consequences.
Background of the Case
On that spring evening in 1989, a group of roughly 30 teenagers was loitering in Central Park, New York. Allegedly, some of them were physically and verbally harassing homeless people and other park goers. Additionally, Trisha Meili, a young white woman, was jogging in the park alone. Subsequently, she was found brutally beaten and raped later that night.
Meili survived but remained in a coma for 12 days before waking up. She had no memory of her attack in the park. The case and investigation revolving around the Central Park Jogger would rapidly grip New York City, and law enforcement would act relentlessly to discover the potential culprit(s) of the horrific attack.
According to a BBC News article, Richardson and Santana were the first to be taken into custody due to reports of intimidating behavior and muggings. McCray, Salaam and Wise went in the following day. Wise was not originally considered a suspect at the time but wanted to be in solidarity with Salaam.
Detectives interrogated all five of the boys individually about what happened in the park for at least seven hours without their parents before four of them made videotaped confessions to detectives. All revealed and confirmed in the tapes that they touched or restrained Meili, while one or more of the others assaulted her.
As the DNA evidence from semen discovered at the crime scene did not match any of the five boys, as well as no eyewitness accounts connecting them to the rape incident, prosecutors relied solely on the initial interrogations, which had significant inconsistencies.
The boys argued that those statements on the tapes were fabricated, claiming that police coerced them into giving false confessions due to empty promises that the boys would be able to return home to their families or receive lesser sentences if they plead guilty.
After two trials, the Central Park Five were found guilty of attempted murder, rape, assault and robbery, and they were convicted to six to 13 years in prison.
A Shocking Twist
Matias Reyes had been convicted of several rapes and murder and was in prison. He had crossed paths with Wise twice while in prison.
In 2002, Reyes confessed to the police that he sexually assaulted Meili when he was 17. He also revealed that he acted alone. He recalled details about the incident that was not public knowledge, and his DNA matched the sample at the crime scene.
The Central Park Five became the Exonerated Five and were cleared of all charges having almost served their full sentences. After their release, they filed a civil suit against New York City in 2014 and received $41 million in the settlement. Wise received the largest chunk, $12 million, for he was the only one who was sentenced as an adult, and therefore, spent the longest time in prison.
Director Ava Duvernay, the visionary of the Netflix miniseries “When They See Us,” stated that the Netflix project was the biggest she has ever done in a May video interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. “It asks who’s the they, and who’s the us? But, it also asks the question: how does a black mother see her son, how does a police officer see her son, how did New York City see these boys at the time? My goal with this case is to illuminate larger truths about the criminal justice system,” said Duvernay.
Ties to the Story
Netflix U.S. tweeted on June 12 that the four-part series had been the most-watched show every day in the U.S. since it premiered on May 31. Duvernay said that her works before “When They See Us” helped her to prepare and complete the project, especially her Netflix documentary 13th, which explores the history of racial inequality in the nation, focusing on mass incarceration of African-American males.
The Equal Justice Initiative Museum and lynching memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, explore America’s legacy of slavery, racial terror, segregation and mass incarceration. EJI founder Bryan Stevenson claims that mass incarceration equates to modern-day slavery, and the museum depicts this lineage. “We want to create an institution that allows people to experience directly what this history means and what it does. Our silence [as a nation] has left us vulnerable to new forms of bigotry and discrimination that we need to address,” said Stevenson.
Duvernay’s “When They See Us” highlights the historical trend of people of color going to jail for crimes they did not commit. The Netflix series is intertwined in the social justice work that EJI does, providing legal aid and advocating for individuals on death row who are innocent. Anthony Ray Hinton was exonerated on April 3, 2015, after serving 30 years on death row in Alabama. Charles Ray Finch was exonerated 43 years after being sentenced to death in North Carolina. According to the EJI website, Finch’s case is the tenth one this decade that exoneration has taken 30 years or more. Additionally, all of those exonerees are black.
The Work Continues
Duvernay recalled the reactions of Richardson, Santana, McCray, Salaam and Wise when they saw “When They See Us” at the official screening. “Needless to say, [the Five] were very emotional throughout the screening. They held hands, they hugged, they cried, they cheered, they saw themselves,” said Duvernay in a Rolling Stone interview.
Duvernay also proposes a challenge to others after viewing her Netflix series and said, “When I’m asking people When will you see them? I’m asking by seeing them, will you see all of the boys and girls and men and women who are black or brown, who are unseen or who are seen through the lens of criminality?”
Recent Comments