Case closed?

last updated 8 January 2015

New York

The five teenagers convicted for the infamous 1989 “Central Park jogger” rape and beating didn’t commit the crime, a defense lawyer said last week. A man never charged in the case, convicted rapist Matias Reyes, came forward several months ago and said he alone raped the young female jogger, who was beaten and left in a coma. Prosecutors tested the semen left on the victim’s sock, and it matched Reyes’ DNA. Five black and Hispanic teenagers were convicted in the case, thanks mainly to graphic confessions of a “wilding” spree in the park. Michael Warren, a lawyer for three of the men, has now asked a judge to dismiss the convictions, although the men have already served their time. A law-enforcement official said Reyes’ DNA match exonerated no one. “It is unlikely that he was acting alone,” he said.