Five teenagers are serving long prison terms for allegedly raping a jogger in Central Park. It wasn’t until years later that they were found to be innocent. Now the city of New York is paying them record compensation – after years of litigation.
–
- Men wrongly accused of rape receive one of the highest compensation payments ever made in the United States
- Settlement with the City of New York after years of litigation
- Tat sparked the racism debate in the USA
–
Compensation of millions 25 years after the crime
25 years after a rape in New York’s Central Park that rocked the whole of the United States, five innocent men have received a total of more than $ 40 million in compensation. According to its own statements, the city of New York has now agreed to a corresponding agreement and released the money.
The legal battle over compensation lasted eleven years. According to media reports on Friday, the amount paid is among the highest ever paid in the United States in a case of innocence. Each of the five men gets nearly a million dollars a year in prison, writes the Huffington Post.
The 1989 incident
In April 1989, a young woman was raped while jogging in Central Park and was so severely abused that she was lucky enough to survive. The 28-year-old had a fractured skull and one eye had come out of the cave from the blows. She wasn’t found until hours after the crime. That same night, the police arrested five young people, then between 14 and 16 years old, four of whom made a confession.
However, they later withdrew the confessions, saying that the police had put pressure on them. There were also inconsistencies in the trial, but the defendants were sentenced to long prison terms.
Four of the boys were imprisoned for about seven years, and one for 13 years. It was not until 2003 that the five youths were found to be innocent – at that time it became known that a single man who was in custody for another crime at the time was the sole perpetrator.
The public debate on the act
The case had caused a stir and sparked a debate on racism. The police were charged with completely unilateral investigations and ill-treated and intimidated the suspects, four blacks and one Latino. Among other things, the names of the boys were announced, although four of them were still under 16 years old. The jogger was again accused of her own fault if she went to Central Park in the dark. The discussion about compensation from the 2012 film had a new impetus The Central Park Five by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.
– .
