ipl-logo

Essay On The Central Park Five

743 Words3 Pages

You have been found guilty of rape and are sentenced 15 years in prison. How would you like to serve the entirety of your sentence to have your case overturned? As a juvenile? Throughout the film The Central Park Five, there are many instances in which the film questions race and class, the failing of our criminal justice system, legal protections for vulnerable juveniles, and basic human rights. Specifically, men of color are targeted and those targeted men of color were also all juveniles. This situation of the Central Park Five depicts the failed criminal justice system, the relationship citizens have with law enforcement, and a lack of basic human rights.
Imagine a warm summer night, up late with your friends, and you decide to go for a walk in the park. Seems nice, right? That walk in the park turned into a prison sentence. The Central Park Five tells the story of five black and Latino teenage boys who were accused of attacking and raping a white woman in Central Park. After nearly all the boys completed their prison sentences, the case was overturned. The boys never did anything to the woman running through Central Park. The …show more content…

In a case like this, the media should never have been involved. This only damages the integrity of the case even more. What person is going to back a group of 5 teenage boys of color when they are accused of assaulting a raping a white woman? That doesn’t give them a good look, nor does the media coverage from every outlet possible. These boys should have been treated as juveniles and they should have been guided through the entire process. They were not given a fair or accurate investigation, trial, or even a chance. The five boys were treated as if they have been in the system for the entirety of their lives. Imagine being assumed a hardcore criminal when you’re 15 years old, your assumed life of crime would have to begin the second you are

Show More
Related

  • Comparing The Murder Of Damien Echols, Misskelley And Jason Baldwin

    1250 Words  | 5 Pages

    Police used many tactics during the investigation and eventually got one of the boys

    Read More

  • Stephanie Crowe Research Papers

    907 Words  | 4 Pages

    They sued because of the coerced statements that happened earlier in the case. Those statements are what caused the boys to end up in trouble for 13 months. Cheryl Crowe said, "We relive it everyday," and "It's a part of our life now.” “We have to relive a lot of details we'd rather not hear, but we have to. "(Fox5Sandiego.com)

    Read More

  • Summary Of Central Park Five

    818 Words  | 4 Pages

    While the Central Park Five now refute their own confessions, Coulter stresses that “All those charged with the jogger's rape gave detailed, corroborated, videotaped confessions, after full Miranda warnings, four of the five in the presence of an adult relative” (Coulter). With adults present and videotaping, there was no reason for the boys to give false confessions. These confessions alone are powerful enough to convict the Central Park Five, and during that time the defense had very weak arguments to counter the confessions. In the courtroom, “the showing of the videotape yesterday was regarded as the most damaging blow to the defense in the four weeks of testimony thus far”, and it set the course towards conviction (Sullivan). Any jury listening and watching a youth give such a damning confession would doubt the notion of innocence.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Central Park Five

    624 Words  | 3 Pages

    An explosive documentary examines the famous criminal case that once it was called the crime of the century: The Central Park Five. Many people heard and remember this criminal case, but very few know that the people who went to prison were not guilty. The documentary tells the story of how four black and one Latino teenagers were arrested and convicted in 1989 for beating and raping a white woman in Central Park in New York City. The coverage of the media at that time presented the adolescents as guilty and used racially coded terms, such as "wolf pack", to refer to the group of boys accused of the attack.

    Read More

  • George Stinney's Trial

    258 Words  | 2 Pages

    But it really doesn’t make sense because when they convicted him they didn’t bother interviewing anyone how could a 14 year old boy that weight 90 pounds be able to kill and carry the two girls . Picked George Stinney

    Read More

  • Juror's Abuse During The Blood Brothers Trial

    196 Words  | 1 Pages

    During the first trial the brothers grabbed the jurors and most of Americans around the world. They shared several accounts about the abuse they suffered at the hands of their parents. There was even a couple of stories about the mothers abuse. It was said that she would bathe them up until they were 13 years old. She have them to sleep with her where she would allow them to touch her every where.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Central Park 5

    699 Words  | 3 Pages

    The prosecutors did not have DNA connecting the boys to the crime, the crime scene did not indicate from than one assailant, only one boy looked like in he was in a physical altercation, and the timeline provided by the detectives placed them at the other side of Central Park when the rape took place. The whole case was substantiated on one type of evidence – their confessions which were recanted afterwards. The boys gave their confession when they were formally arrested, after they were interrogated for over a day without sleep or food. The children say that they were told if they confessed, they could go home. The confessions told were inconsistent with each other and the physical evidence.

    Read More

  • Scottsboro Trial Research Paper

    190 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the trail all nine of the boys were procticuted in only one day (Anderson). From that you can see that the boys were not fairly procticuted they were pushed down because they were different. There was no eveadens to prove that they rape the women ,but there

    Read More

  • Examples Of Social Injustice In The Crucible

    893 Words  | 4 Pages

    When all of sudden two young ladies rush off the train and accused the boys of raping them. When in actuality most of the boys were not even in the same car as the young ladies. They were really accusing the boys of raping because they were prostitutes and they were crossing state line which was illegally, When you are rape there are more than likely some kind of sign of a struggle but when Dr.John Lynch ,and Dr. R.R. Bridges examined victims Ruby Bates and Victoria Price less than two hours after the alleged rapes occurred the two doctors found semen in the vaginas of both women, they found little evidence to support their claims that they had been raped ,so in all reality they had lied to get people over the fact that they were prostitutes. By the end all of the nine boys that were convicted and found guilty and all served at least eighteen years in a Alabama chain gang before being either pardon or

    Read More

  • The Indictment: The Mcmartin Trial

    815 Words  | 4 Pages

    After the arrest hundreds of and hundreds of children started to testify that they as well had been abused. The childrens abuse stories were gruesome and descriptive. Since the case gained popularity in no time it quickly began to unfold as a mass hysteria among the

    Read More

  • The Central Park Five Analysis

    1325 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Central Park Five is a documentary film that was produced by Ken Burns in the year of 2012. This documentary tells the story of five black teenage boys whose lives were changed forever when they were falsely convicted and imprisoned for brutally beating and raping a woman jogging in Central Park on the night of April 19, 1989. By creating this film, the filmmakers allowed the young men to share with the public their own accounts of that horrific night. The film exposed not only police intimidation, but the lack of evidence used to convict the five boys. Through blurbs of different newscast shown in the documentary, the viewer was also able to get a glimpse of how the crime brought about a cultural diversity causing extreme violence to erupt

    Read More

  • Central Park Five Case Study

    1142 Words  | 5 Pages

    These five boys were all present in Central Park the night of Meili’s assault and that night, April 19th 1989, they were taken to the central park precinct. They were questioned for over twenty-four hours and forced to give a false confession. They were proven innocent thirteen years later when Reyes admitted to the crime and was proven guilty. All of the boys spent at least seven years in prison for this crime they did not even

    Read More

  • Gang Rape Case

    727 Words  | 3 Pages

    The accused and three of his friends were involved in a fight with two other men, During the fight, one of the youths pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the men in the chest killing him. The four teens fled the scene. Two weeks later the youths were brought in and interviewed separately by the police. During the interview the officers made it clear that the youths were under no obligation to answer any questions. With the youths consent the interviews were videotaped.

    Read More

  • West Memphis Three Vs Salem Witch Trials

    938 Words  | 4 Pages

    Finally, after 18 years they were released, but were strongly recommended to take the Alford Plea, in which the defendants have to admit to the crime to get out of prison. The state of Arkansas offered the men the Alford Plea, so they could not sue the state when they got out of prison. In my opinion, that is not

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Documentary When Kids Get Life By Ofra Bikel

    927 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the documentary “When Kids Get Life” by Ofra Bikel we see five men who were sentenced to life in prison for committing crimes in their teens. We hear the stories of how it happened, why it happened, and what life is like for them today. This documentary sheds light on the battle that juveniles face when they commit crimes and the judicial system. This documentary relates heavily in the material we learn because although it is about teenagers who receive life in prison, the judicial system plays a key role.

    Read More

More about Essay On The Central Park Five

Open Document