Ava DuVernay to write, direct Netflix miniseries on the Central Park Five

(Image credit: AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo)

published 6 July 2017

Netflix on Thursday announced a five-part miniseries about the Central Park Five, the five teenagers wrongly convicted in 1990 of raping and beating a female jogger in the Manhattan park. The limited series will be written and directed by Ava DuVernay, who earned an Oscar nomination for her first Netflix project, the documentary 13th.

Each of the episodes will center on one of the five Harlem teenagers, and the series will span from the original incident in 1989 to the men's exoneration in 2014. "In their journey, we witness five innocent young men of color who were met with injustice at every turn — from coerced confessions to unjust incarceration to public calls for their execution by the man who would go on to be the president of the United States," DuVernay said, referring to President Trump's continual questioning of the men's innocence. Trump reportedly spent $85,000 on full-page ads in several major New York newspapers calling for the state to "bring back the death penalty" after the crime was reported in 1989.

The series will debut in 2019.