On April 20, 1989, Trisha Meili went out for a morning jog in Central Park, New York. She was later found unconscious after being brutally assaulted. Further investigations revealed that she had been beaten and raped repeatedly. As a consequence of the assault, she remained in a coma for almost half a month, and after she woke up, she had no memory of the traumatizing event (Koen, 2018). Due to the massive public outcry that resulted from Meili’s brutal assault, the police quickly investigated and arrested five teenagers, Antron McCray (15), Yusef Salaam (15), Kevin Richardson (15), Korey Wise (16) and Raymond Santana age 14 (McCloskey, 2019). After being convicted and sentenced for terms ranging from 6 to 13 years in prison, this group came to be known as the Central Park Five (Burns, 2011). In 2002, however, new DNA evidence and a confession revealed that the five boys were falsely tried and convicted. It turned out that Matias Reye, a convicted rapist, was the only culprit, and the Central Park Five were innocent.
Four General Education Lenses
History
African Americans and Latinos have belonged to minority racial groups. As a result, there have been documented cases of oppression, especially police brutality against these races, especially the African Americans, that is a partial part of the American culture backdrop. Therefore, following the urgency of the case in its early stages, there is nothing that added fire and created more public outcry than the full-page advertisement taken out by Donald Trump, the then real estate magnate, promoting the conviction of the boys to the death penalty. This advertisement ran in four of New York’s newspapers. Of the most inciting comments was the open attitude to hate the boys for crimes they had allegedly committed. This advertisement manipulated public opinion and made it such that everyone believed that they were guilty (Norris & Redlich, 2013). Additionally, the families of the boys subsequently received death threats as a consequence of the advertisement.
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Therefore, due to the massive public outcry on the case, the conviction of the five boys ceased to be about finding justice for the victim, Trisha Meili. Instead, the case developed into a narrative about the safety of the city. As a result, it became accepted rhetoric that punishing the boys, even when innocent until proven guilty, was a solution to the problems (Burns, 2019). How this came to be developed from Trump’s ads in the newspapers. In other words, by publishing the ad, Trump poisoned the minds of a majority of New Yorkers and shaping the narrative such that everyone had empathy for the victim. Having empathy for the victim is not wrong, provided it did not lead people astray from truth and justice. The jury was, therefore, not spared (Burns, 2019). Even thugh they later asserted that they could be fair and impartial, there was bound to be some influence by the inflammatory messages and opinions going around in the media. It is, therefore, fair to say that American history of the oppression of minority races and ethnic groups predisposed the public to divide along racial lines. The consequential development of the court proceedings and the role the media played is also another perspective revealed by the historical lens.
In other words, through the media, specifically newspapers, Donald Trump published an ad that inflamed the residents of the city. Additionally, the ad’s contents had nothing to do with the specifics of the case. Instead, it established a narrative that made the five boys guilty. Therefore, in the court of public opinion, the boys had already lost. However, given that the American justice system is built such that one is convicted by a jury of their peers, it is inevitable that these peers can be influenced by different factors. This is also why the jury is made up of many individuals, such that outlier cases do not influence the outcome of a ruling. However, the case against the Central Park Five was a black swan that revealed a deficiency with the jury system. In other words, when such a case creates massive public outcry as well as creates the opportunity for individuals outside the judicial system to add inflammatory comments, it is impossible for the jury to objectively and impartially make a ruling.
Humanities
The lens of humanities, unlike history, looks into the interaction between cultures or even a nation’s culture. For the Central Park Five, the cultural diversity and interactions in New York city become apparent when considering how the investigations were carried out. On April 20, the five boys were arrested and interrogated for over seven hours. It was only after this lengthy interrogation that the detectives assigned to the case came in to record official statements. Additionally, these statements were later presented to look like confessions on record. There were certain notable inconsistencies that raised several flags. First, the supposed confessions were taken on April 21, a day after the arrests. Secondly, three of the boys made the alleged confessions in the presence of their parents. For Santana, however, he made the confession unaccompanied by a parent, guardian, or legal counsel. Thirdly and most importantly, none of the boys had legal representation during the interrogation that later turned out to be confessions.
This has had implications on the validity as well as the admissibility of the interrogations that were later used as confessions. However, what is interesting from a cultural perspective, is that all the boys came from communities where familiarity with legal proceedings as well as rights are limited only to a few. This, therefore, created a situation where the boys’ rights were abused and subsequently impacted their lives. Secondly, it is part of American culture to ostracize individuals and families who have been on the wrong side of the law. Therefore, the parents of the boys who were present during the interrogations were under social pressure. Given that their kids were allegedly involved in the brutal assault, they might have been influenced to convince the boys to confess just for everything to be over. Thirdly, the interrogation of the boys in the absence of legal counselors shows another cultural failing. In other words, even if it is not stated by the law, the investigating and interrogating detectives had the ethical responsibility to respect and observe the legal rights of anyone under criminal investigation. This includes but not limited to, ensuring the individuals have legal representation, even when they are not aware of their rights. By taking advantage of their ignorance, the police showed a culture that fails to respect the individual’s rights under the law. It is, therefore, not a surprise that further investigations that led to the overturning of the convictions led to lawsuits being made against the city for being refused a fair trial. Though public opinion stands that the NYPD acted inappropriately, there has never been any public statement released to address how the force amended its errors.
Natural and Applied Sciences
It is inarguable that natural and applied sciences played the biggest role in getting the convictions against the boys vacated in 2002. Prior to 1994, the NYPD did not have a DNA database. Therefore, when the DNA evidence was collected, it was useless because there was no technology to test it. Had such technology or database existed, the boys would have been cleared of all charges. This is because the clearance rate for criminal cases, especially violent ones, with DNA evidence is very high (David & Wells, 2019). It can, therefore, be said that the case developed the way it did because the natural and applied sciences failed to contribute. It was not too late, however.
Matias Reyes, the real rapist, and assaulter, left DNA evidence that was collected and preserved. After confessing to assaulting Meili, the authorities conducted a DNA test. Using semen found at the crime scene, the test results indicated that none of the boys were either perpetrators or accomplices to the crimes they were eventually convicted and sentenced to. Based on the new discoveries, the boys all filed motions to have their convictions overturned, and the state compensates them for all the damages they went through. From this, it is clear that sciences and technology play a bigger role in the justice system. However, everything has its downsides. For instance, the proliferation of technology as a consequence of scientific progress has made the country safer. Additionally, such an application in the justice system has also turned most states and countries into surveillance states. Therefore, the benefits of natural and applied sciences should be taken with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Social Sciences
By taking a big picture view, the story is well known and is now an indictment of the American justice system. However, what is commonly ignored are the social impacts and consequences of the convictions, both on the lives of the boys, their families, and friends. For instance, it was discovered earlier that as a consequence of Trump’s inflammatory ads in the newspapers, the families for the boys started receiving death threats. Even though justice had not done its work yet, the public had already convicted the boys and their families, thus affecting their social lives.
Given the publicity of the case and its overturning, this is how their social lives were changed. First, the boys were forced to be registered as sex offenders. Therefore, when they had completely served their sentences, there were some limitations on their lives as a legal consequence of being a registered sex offender. Being registered sex offenders, the five had difficulties finding housing or employment. Additionally, they had to report to the relevant authorities four times a year. Since the five were arrested and had their convictions at critical times of their lives, they were left without the requisite skills to function normally in society. These are among the social impact the entire event had on their lives.
Conclusions
In summary, this paper has explored the case of the Exonerated Five Police Brutality case from the four lenses of general education. It has established that as a social consequence of the events, the boy’s social lives were impacted by the social practices of the American society, especially with regards to the registration and treatment of sex offenders. It has also viewed the benefits and challenges of addressing issues in diversity by exploring the role of the media and science in the cases. From this, it is clear that gaining further insight into an event, and interactions should be done on the bases of diversity. This diversity can come from ideological as well as cultural differences.
References
Burns, S. (2019). The Central Park Five: A story revisited in light of the acclaimed new Netflix series When They See Us, directed by Ava DuVernay . Hachette UK.
Burns, S. (2011). The Central Park Five: A chronicle of a city wilding . Alfred a Knopf Incorporated.
Davis, R. C., & Wells, W. (2019). DNA testing in sexual assault cases: When do the benefits outweigh the costs?. Forensic science international , 299 , 44-48.
Koen, W. J. (2018). Case Study: The Central Park five. The Psychology and Sociology of Wrongful Convictions: Forensic Science Reform , 152.
McCloskey, S. (2019). When They See Us. A Development Education Review .
Norris, R. J., & Redlich, A. D. (2013). Seeking Justice, Compromising Truth-Criminal Admissions and the Prisoner's Dilemma. Alb. L. Rev. , 77 , 1005.
