The Central Park jogger case went through a multitude of developments, and is reflected by the ever-changing mentality of both the people close to the case and the public at large. After the initial attack on the jogger in 1989, all eyes were on the boys, whose actions in the park and confessions in the precinct incriminated them beyond further doubt. In the eyes of the public, the wild behavior of juveniles in New York is what triggered this kind of attack, and putting these boys away is the first step towards recovery. Then the confession of a single lone man—Matias Reyes—changed the perspective of the boys’ guilt. Talks of coerced confessions and exonerations sparked within the public, and many were not convinced. After nearly 24 years …show more content…
For years, the Central Park jogger case was old news, an open and shut case where justice has been served and the criminals behind bars suffering the consequences. Police insist that the Central Park Five are still guilty, and that the “’most likely scenario’ was that the youths and Mr. Reyes had attacked the jogger, either simultaneously or consecutively” (McFadden). The confessions, though now under review as being coerced, still remain as key evidence that the boys had a hand in the assault. They believed that the confession of Reyes guarantees a link of him participating in the assault, but does not necessarily exempt the Central Park Five. Also, the “wilding” done that night still remains as strong evidence to the possibility of the boys assaulting the Central Park Jogger. Their behavior is backed with witness claims, and cannot be forgotten as part of the events that unfolded that night, Though, the lawyers of the defense view Reyes confession as undeniable evidence that the Central Park Five are innocent, as “the police have strained mightily but vainly to avoid the overwhelming proof that Matias Reyes was the only person who attacked and raped the Central Park jogger” (McQuillan). Since the violent crime in Central Park, Reyes continued to attack innocent women, and every time he was alone. …show more content…
Now, most recognize and accept the innocence of the boys, with the media’s new portrayal of the five. In 2011, a novel reviewed the entire case, and was followed by a 2012 documentary, aptly named The Central Park Five, shedding a new light upon the case for the public. Viewing the evidence from a more objective standpoint, along with commentary from the five themselves and key individuals during that era, these accounts reveal how the five were declared guilty with such confidence. But, the individual can now understand a possible explanation for why the confessions were given, citing that “the Central Park defendants each cited the simple desire to go home as a motivating factor in his confession” (Burns 61). If the confessions were considered coerced in the trial, it would’ve been thrown out of the courtroom as evidence, and the prosecutors won’t have enough evidence to go after the five. Only this many years later, people have begun to understand how it was like for the five in the precincts, causing them to give out such graphic confessions. When Reyes stepped forward, there were still many skeptics that believed the boys had a hand in the assault. Though, viewing Reyes’ past crimes and his statement “were details that even the most assiduous student of the case would have had a hard time
On July 30, 1992, an innocent man was placed behind bars and caged for a crime he did not commit. This false arrest allowed for the real perpetrator to walk free whi...
In his article, “The Nightmare of the West Memphis Three”, Rich explores how the people of Memphis drew horrific conclusions about people based on the lifestyle they chose to practice. The article highlights the trials and tribulations faced by the accused three young teenagers. Rich does this by citing the popular documentary series “Paradise Lost” which is an in depth analysis into the lives of the accused, the victims’ families and members of the community. This paper outlines how the belief system of that time superseded the inconclusive evidence, which ultimately led to an unfair trial. By “othering” and “marginalizing” those three teens, the society and police created a scenario that aligned with their belief system at the time. Lastly, this paper highlights the influence of the media and celebrity in changing the course for these boys.
This movie really tied everything we’ve been discussing in class and seeing it unfold was actually really eye opening. I found it important going forward to make sure I do not fall into that tunnel vision mentality and to make sure I follow the evidence rather than fitting the suspect to the evidence. Again, I found it interesting like in the Norfolk Four case and in the Central Park 5 case police neglected to look at surrounding crime areas to see if any other cases matched the same modus operandi. If the police did look at surrounding cases they would have established a link between previous assaults and the assault that took place in the park that night. I was amazed how the detectives did not connect how each of the confessions varied by who did what and how they attacked the victim. It was Korey Wise in the video that kept putting up his hand when asked how big was the rock and he was just moving them back and forth. Police also neglected to look at the attack patterns of where the group first was hassling people in the park. They would have found that the boys were at one end of the park, while the victim was being attacked and there was no way they could have been in two places at once. I also found troubling during the time was the media portrayal of the Central Park 5, how they were painted as vicious young men, who brutally attacked a harmless white women. Even after each one of them was exonerated from the crime the media still portrayed them as vicious men. As we discussed in class, I think a lawyer like a magistrate should be available 24/7 when it comes to juveniles, because I believe that this five did not know their Miranda Rights and what they were entitled. If they knew what their rights were I believe the confessions never would have happened and none of them would have gone to
Justice was not served in the controversial nature of the Bernhard Goetz subway shooting trial. After shooting four black teenagers, Bernhard Goetz turned himself into the police in Concord, New Hampshire. He was denominated, “The Subway Vigilante”. This case was brought to court approximately two years later, where Bernhard Goetz would ultimately be voted guilty of one count of illegal firearms possession, and served just six months in jail. Following the trials, questions are still being asked if justice has been served.
In order to incriminate Danial Williams, Joseph Dick, Eric Wilson, and Derek Tice with the rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko, Detectives Maureen Evans and Robert Ford conducted long, grueling interrogation sessions using many provocative and manipulative tactics. Throughout this process, Ford and Evans coerced the suspects into renegotiating their perception of the crime until an entirely new reality was created. This new reality evolved as the police elicited additional confessionary evidence to account for each new piece of physical evidence from the crime scene. Eventually, in an iterative process that had police editing their theories of the crime and then forcing the suspects to claim this new reality as their own, the reconciled reality of the crime became one that was consistent with both the criminal evidence and the suspects’ new perception. An analysis of empirical m...
On March 2, 1963 around midnight, a man in his early 20’s that we now know as Ernesto Miranda got out of his car and tied up the victim called Jane Doe as she wanted her name to be kept private. He drove her out to the desert outskirts of Phoenix. She did not resist Miranda as he kidnapped her as she feared for her life. Jane Doe was raped by Miranda a crime tried before by Miranda. He made her hand over the miniscule $4 she had and drove her back to the city. During the police questioning of Jane Doe about her attacker she said that she would recognize her attacker if she saw him again. About a week after the attack Jane Doe was out late with a family member, they walked by...
On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it
When horrific crimes occur in large cities, many of them can be chalked up to gang violence or to the larger population of that specific city. But when horrific crimes happen in small cities like Lincoln, Nebraska, people begin to ask questions like who did this and why. In 1958, a nineteen year old man named Charles Starkweather put the entire state of Nebraska and possibly the entire nation in a state of terror. With his murder spree taking only three days, Starkweather had collected a body count of ten bodies, including two teenagers and a young child. Understanding Starkweather’s past and state of mind begins to answer the second question of why.
middle of paper ... ... As for the boys themselves, may they eventually get justice for the wrongs they went through. Works Cited “Crime scene or dump site?” wm3truth.com/crime-scene-or-dump-site/ n.p. 2011 Web.
From the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1981, at least twenty-eight people were abducted and killed during a murder spree in Atlanta, Georgia; these killings would come to be known as the Atlanta Child Murders. While the victims of the killings were people of all races and genders, most of the victims of the Atlanta Child Murders were young African-American males. These murders created great racial tension in the city of Atlanta, with its black population believing the murders to be the work of a white supremacist group. (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. l) However, when police finally apprehended a suspect in the case, they found it was neither a white supremacy group, nor a white person at all; it was a 23 year-old African-American man named Wayne Williams. (“What are”, n.d.)
I enjoyed reading Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor M. Rios because it was not only informing, but I could place myself as if I were one of the characters in the story. I could not even begin to imagine what these boys with through. From being beaten’ for no reason, to getting cuffed and sitting in the back of a cop car because they were eating a slice of pizza is absolutely ridiculous and should not be tolerated. Not only did I understand how these boys were in the networks of crime, but also, the criminalization, and punishment made sense and how I observed the higher authority took action. In my essay, I will be discussing three major concepts which are: moral panics, labeling , and code of the street.
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
Locallo describes the Bridgeport case as being a “heater case”, not only because of the social impact that it will create in the community, but also because of all the media attention it will receive which will influence his possible reelection once his term is over (Courtroom 302, 31). When Frank Caruso Jr. decided that he was going to beat Lenard Clark, an African American boy he created the spark that society needed to get back at the Caruso family for all of the crimes that they got away with in the past. During the past several decades, society has tried to make the Caruso family take responsibility for their crimes, but all those efforts just strengthened the family ties and political positions.
The Public Conviction of Albert DeSalvo and the True Story of Eleven Shocking Murders makes a persuasive argument for DeSalvo being innocent of the strangling murders. She cites a number of reasons why she and others still believed that DeSalvo was innocent. One of the strongest of these reasons is that there was "not one shred of physical
On August 20th, 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents inside their Beverly Hills home with fifteen shot gun blasts after years of alleged “sexual, psychological, and corporal abuse” (Berns 25). According to the author of “Murder as Therapy”, “The defense has done a marvelous job of assisting the brothers in playing up their victim roles” (Goldman 1). Because there was so much evidence piled up against the brothers, the defense team was forced to play to the jurors’ emotions if they wanted a chance at an acquittal. Prosecutor Pamela Bozanich was forced to concede that “Jose and Kitty obviously had terrific flaws-most people do in the course of reminding jurors that the case was about murder, not child abuse” (Adler 103). Bozanich “cast the details of abuse as cool, calculated lies” (Smolowe 48)...