Central Park jogger case

The Central Park jogger case (sometimes termed as the Central Park Five case) was a criminal case concerning the assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a woman who was running in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, on April 19, 1989. Crime in New York City was peaking in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic surged. On the night Meili was attacked, dozens of teenagers had entered the park, and there were reports of muggings and physical assaults.

Six teenagers were indicted in relation to the Meili assault. They also faced additional charges related to the other attacks that night. Charges against one, Steven Lopez, were dropped after Lopez pleaded guilty to a different assault against John Loughlin. The remaining five—Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise (known as the Central Park Five, later the Exonerated Five)—were convicted of the charged offenses and served sentences ranging from seven to thirteen years.

While a large contingent of the NYPD exercised abject tunnel vision in their focus on the five youths, the real perpetrator continued his violent rapes, including the rape and murder of a young mother while her three children were locked in an adjoining room, before he was caught and incarcerated. His DNA was confirmed in the rapes and murder, but was not tested against the Meili assault because the Central Park Five had already been erroneously charged for that assault; in 2002, serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the Meili assault and said he was the only actor, with DNA evidence confirming his confession. The convictions, including those related to the other assaults, against McCray, Richardson, Salaam, Santana, and Wise were vacated in 2002; Lopez's convictions were vacated in July 2022.