Should the ‘Central Park 5’ receive a settlement? The New York Post doesn’t think so
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed to pay $250 million to five young black men who served years in prison for a crime they did not commit.
Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yudef Salaam, Antron McCray and Korey Wise were found guilty of the 1989 rape of Trisha Meili.
Known as the Central Park 5, the young men were sentenced despite there being a lack of DNA, no eyewitnesses and conflicting confessions. Their sentences were commuted in 2002 after the real perpetrator confessed. While some view the decision as long overdue, The New York Post isn’t too thrilled about the settlement.
The five, teenagers at the time, were convicted largely on the strength of their graphic and detailed confessions, which they later recanted but which were captured on videotape in the presence of their parents or guardians. Some repeated their confessions years later at parole hearings. […]
Against this public pressure, The Post stood virtually alone in opposing both the hasty overturning of their convictions and in making a huge cash settlement.
The Post writes that while the Central Park 5 may have been innocent of the rape, they’re “no innocent victims.”
Thoughts on the paper’s stance?
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