Skip to content

featuring historical research, writing, and media at st. mary's university

  • World History

    World History

    Menu
    • World History
    • Pre-Classical History (to 600 BCE)
    • Classical History (600 BCE-600 CE)
    • Post-Classical History (600 CE-1492 CE)
    • Early Modern History (1492-1789)
    • Modern History (1789-1914)
    • Global History (1900-present)

    From the Ancient World

    The Battle of Zama: Rome's Vengeance

    Posted by Davis Nickle12/01/2020

    From the Modern World

    The Holy See Takes On The Fight Against Climate Change

    Posted by Victor Rodriguez11/30/2020

    Regional Histories

    Menu
    • African and African American Studies
    • Latin American Studies
  • US History

    Early America

    Menu
    • US-Three Worlds Meet (to 1620)
    • US-Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763)
    • US-Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
    • US-Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
    • US-Civil War & Reconstruction (1850-1877)

    Bullying gone Technological: The Tragic Death of Megan Meier

    Posted by Arsema Abera03/29/2020

    Envisioning the Future: the Start of Apple

    Posted by Adrian Garcia12/10/2019

    The Courageous Work of Americo Paredes

    Posted by Anthony Coronado05/06/2020

    Hugs Not Walls: Reunification of Families on the South Border

    Posted by Eliane Castorena05/07/2020

    Rocket Falcon 1: The Art of Failure

    Posted by Bruno Lezama10/03/2019

    The Murder of Kitty Genovese

    Posted by Stephanie Cerda11/14/2019

    A Charlie Brown Debut: Introduction to the First 'Peanuts' Member of Color

    Posted by Rebeca Escobar04/02/2019

    The First Woman Jockey Who made History in a Pari-mutuel Race

    Posted by Kelsey Sanchez11/14/2019

    American Enemy? Renouncing Citizenship for Freedom and Enhancing Rights for All Americans

    Posted by Thiffany Yeupell04/16/2020

    The Notorious RBG

    Posted by Alicia Guzman04/07/2019

    The One Device: Story of the First iPhone

    Posted by Bruno Lezama12/08/2019

    Korey Wise

    Posted by Maya Simon11/29/2020

    How the Soviet Union Compelled the United States to Build the World's Fastest Jet: The Lockheed A-12 OXCART

    Posted by Nathaniel Bielawski05/07/2020

    Fortnite and Video Game Violence

    Posted by Elizabeth Maguire12/08/2019

    Radiator Springs and the Old Spanish Trail: How Pixar's Cars Reflects the History of an Old Auto Route

    Posted by S. Michael Sleeter05/12/2019

    Gun Violence in America: The Sandy Hook Story

    Posted by Diamond Estrada11/14/2019

    The Artistic Duo: The Inspiring Story of Jean Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol

    Posted by Nelly Perez10/22/2019

    From Child to Commodore: How Cornelius Vanderbilt Became The Commodore

    Posted by Aaron Sandoval05/04/2020

    The Waco Tragedy: David Koresh and The Branch Davidians

    Posted by Victoria Davis12/14/2019

    Henry Lee Lucas: The Tellings of a Serial Confessor

    Posted by Mia Hernandez03/02/2020

    There's No Place Like Home, In Hollywood: The Story Behind Judy Garland

    Posted by Audrey Uribe10/31/2019

    The Warren Commission Report: Conspiracy Theories Addressed on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

    Posted by Samuel Vega04/11/2020

    Five Eyes & An Onion: Tor & the Deep Dark Web

    Posted by Stephen Talik04/08/2020

    Walter Cronkite: The Most Trusted Man in America

    Posted by Lesley Martinez04/07/2020

    From Being a Christian and Ex-Military to being a Serial Killer: Israel Keyes

    Posted by Adrianna Hernandez10/31/2020

    Music from the heart: How Heart influenced rock and roll

    Posted by Michael Hinojosa05/06/2019

    Big Nosed Kate - An Outlaw's Nightmare?

    Posted by Cameron Lopez04/04/2019

    Health at Every Size As a Means to Approach Obesity and Improve a Fat-phobic Society

    Posted by Vanessa Quetzeri12/01/2019

    Brian Kemp, The Puppeteer of His Own Election

    Posted by Alexa Montelongo12/01/2020

    Live Rattlesnakes and Rock n' Roll: The Story of ZZ Top's "Worldwide Texas Tour"

    Posted by Ricky Moreno10/22/2020

    Contemporary America

    Menu
    • US-Industrial United States (1870-1900)
    • US-Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
    • US-Great Depression & WWII (1929-1945)
    • US-Postwar United States (1945-early 1970s)
    • US-Contemporary United States (1968-present)
  • Themes

    SPICE Categories

    Specialty Categories

    Special Themes

    Menu
    • Social History
    • Political History
    • Environmental History
    • Cultural History
    • Economic History
    Menu
    • Art History
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Gender Studies
    • Human Rights
    • Public Health and Medicine
    • International Relations
    • Linguistics
    Menu
    • Military History
    • Music
    • People
    • Psychology
    • Religion
    • Science & Technology
    • Sports
    Menu
    • Catholic Heritage
    • The Year 1968
    • COVID-19
    • Social Justice
    • Spanish Language
  • Showcase

    Showcase Editions

    • Vol 1 – 2016
      • Vol 1 No 1 Aug-Sep 2016
      • Vol 1 No 2 Oct-Nov 2016
    • Vol 2 – 2017
      • Vol 2 No 1 Jan-Feb 2017
      • Vol 2 No 2 Mar-Apr 2017
      • Vol 2 No 3 Aug-Sep 2017
      • Vol 2 No 4 Oct-Nov 2017
    • Vol 3 – 2018
      • Vol 3 No 1 Jan-Feb 2018
      • Vol 3 No 2 Mar-Apr 2018
      • Vol 3 No 3 Aug-Sep 2018
      • Vol 3 No 4 Oct-Nov 2018
    • Vol 4 – 2019
      • Vol 4 No 1 Jan-Feb 2019
      • Vol 4 No 2 Mar-Apr 2019
      • Vol 4 No 3 Aug-Sep 2019
      • Vol 4 No 4 Oct-Nov 2019
    • Vol 5 – 2020
      • Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 2020
      • Vol 5 No 2 Mar-Apr 2020
      • Vol 5 No 3 Aug-Sep 2020
    Menu
    • Vol 1 – 2016
      • Vol 1 No 1 Aug-Sep 2016
      • Vol 1 No 2 Oct-Nov 2016
    • Vol 2 – 2017
      • Vol 2 No 1 Jan-Feb 2017
      • Vol 2 No 2 Mar-Apr 2017
      • Vol 2 No 3 Aug-Sep 2017
      • Vol 2 No 4 Oct-Nov 2017
    • Vol 3 – 2018
      • Vol 3 No 1 Jan-Feb 2018
      • Vol 3 No 2 Mar-Apr 2018
      • Vol 3 No 3 Aug-Sep 2018
      • Vol 3 No 4 Oct-Nov 2018
    • Vol 4 – 2019
      • Vol 4 No 1 Jan-Feb 2019
      • Vol 4 No 2 Mar-Apr 2019
      • Vol 4 No 3 Aug-Sep 2019
      • Vol 4 No 4 Oct-Nov 2019
    • Vol 5 – 2020
      • Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 2020
      • Vol 5 No 2 Mar-Apr 2020
      • Vol 5 No 3 Aug-Sep 2020
  • About

    Course Readings

    Article Indexes

    About Us

    Menu
    • Course Readings – SC 3300 – Nash
    • Course Readings – SMC 1301 – Wieck
    • Course Readings – PO 4334 – Dr Celine
    • Course Readings _ PO 3365 – Dr Celine
    Menu
    • Course Readings – HS 2321 – Whitener
    • Course Readings – HS 2322 – Whitener
    • Course Readings – SMC 1301 – Whitener
    Menu
    • Our Article/Author Index
    • Award Winning Articles
    Menu
    • Our StMU History Media Project
    • Our Faculty Consultants
    • Our Writers
    • Contact Us
  • African and African American Studies, Crime, Descriptive Article, Human Rights, People, Political History, Social History, Social Justice, United States History, US-Contemporary United States (1968-present)
  • November 29, 2020

Korey Wise

Korey Wise standing in court for his Central Park Five Case Photos courtesy of Getty Images
Korey Wise standing in court for his Central Park Five Case Photos courtesy of Getty Images
Maya Simon

Maya Simon

The date was April 19, 1989. An investment banker named Trisha Meili was brutally attacked in Central Park after her twelve-hour shift. Trisha, then twenty-eight-years old was raped and beaten so badly that she lost 80 percent of her blood, leading to a sequence of events that changed Korey Wise’s life and many more. Mrs. Meili became known as the “Central Park Jogger” and Korey Wise, along with four other men, became known as the “Central Park Five.”1

New York Daily News headline for the Central Park Five Photo Courtesy of Getty Images

The five boys, then teenagers, happened to be in the park around the same time when Meili was brutally attacked. Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise all maintained their innocence until pressured into confessing. Although this story should be about all five of the Central Park Five, I’m just going to focus on Korey Wise’s story. Wise was tried as an adult while the other four were tried as minors and sentenced to five to ten years in a youth correctional facility. Wise was sentenced to five to fifteen years, all of which were served in an adult prison. Wise was never supposed to be a part of this crime. In the beginning, he was just going to the station to support his friend Yusef Salaam, and yet he ended up receiving the most time.2

At the time of the interrogation, the defendants were between fourteen and sixteen years of age. Korey Wise, along with the other four boys, gave videotaped confessions that were offered as proof, though they differed in time, location, and description of the members of the rape. At the trial, the prosecutors also added additional forensic proof. A forensic analyst testified that a hair located on Trisha Meili was “similar” to Mr. Richardson’s hair. The following year, all five boys, including Wise, were convicted in separate trials and with separate charges related to the attack. Cory Wise, then sixteen years old, was tried as an adult and convicted of assault, sexual assault, and riot, leading him to be sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison.3

Arrest photos of the Central Park Five. Top row, from left: Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson. Bottom, from left: Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam. Photo Courtesy of New York City Law Department

Wise, having been tried as an adult, then served nearly thirteen years in prison. While in prison, Wise was beaten up multiple times in prison, placed in solitary confinement, harassed by inmates and prison guards, and so much more. Wise was asked multiple times to admit to raping Trisha Meili, so that he could qualify for early parole, but Wise continued to refuse to admit to a crime he didn’t commit. While incarcerated, Korey lost his father due to cancer, and his transgender sister Marci. Marci was Korey’s older sister who was murdered before his conviction was overturned in 2002. Wise was the only one left from the Central Park Five who was still serving time in prison, when the real culprit decided to come forward and confess to the crime.4

Matias Reyes first met Wise while imprisoned together on Rikers Island after a fight over the television. The two encountered each other again in 2001, in the Auburn prison yard, and had a friendly conversation. Reyes had felt guilty for seeing Wise still imprisoned for a crime that he didn’t commit, and he came forward to confess to raping and almost killing Meili in 1989. DNA evidence confirmed that Reyes was the real rapist instead of Korey Wise and the Central Park Five. “I know it’s hard for people to understand, after twelve years why a person would actually come forward to take responsibility for a crime,” Reyes said to investigators in 2002. “At first, I was afraid, but at the end of the day I felt it was definitely the right thing to do.” DNA evidence confirmed that Reyes had raped Meili.5

Before confessing to brutally attacking Meili, Reyes had previously been convicted of a string of rapes, brutal assaults, and a murder, that had all took place in the late ‘80s in New York. On August 5, 1989, Reyes had followed his sixth victim into her apartment and raped her. She managed to escape and run for help and her doorman held Reyes until the police arrived to arrest him. That’s when the NYPD realized that they were dealing with a serial rapist, and Reyes confessed to the crimes in detail under interrogation. He then accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced to thirty-three years in prison.6

Matias Reyes confessed in prison to raping and assaulting Trisha Meili in 1989. Photo Courtesy of ABC News

In a detailed interview in 2002 on ABC, Reyes said he left Meili for dead. “I struck her from behind, back of the head. She fell. After she fell down, I dragged her to the bushes. I violated her. And after I was finished, she’s struggling. I beat her with a rock. I went off. I hit her a lot of times. I heard bones crushing,” according to the New York State Department of Corrections.7 DNA proof and Reyes’s knowledge of information he provided of Meili was enough to show that he was guilty of the crime. Robert Morgenthau had Korey released from jail and consequently, the Central Park Five was vacated of all charges. Unfortunately, Reyes couldn’t be convicted of the crime due to the state of obstacles in the crime. He is still serving time in jail, but is eligible for parole in 2022.8

Linda Fairstein, the supervising prosecutor of the Central Park Five case, continues to believe that the interrogation and trial techniques used under her watch in the case had been truthful and lawful. Regardless of all the proof that Reyes has provided, she will continue to stand for the conviction that Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise participated in the 1989 attack in some sort of way. “I suppose Reyes ran with that percent of kids,” Linda advised The New Yorker in 2002.8 The five men filed a lawsuit against the city, but the city refused to settle until 2014, when a newly-elected Mayor Bill De Blasio agreed to settle for $41 million.10

Korey Wise speaks to students who volunteer at Korey Wise Innocent Project. Photos courtesy of the Korey Wise Innocent Project

Korey Wise received $12.2 million of the settlement that was given to the Central Park Five by the City. Since his release from prison, Korey Wise now travels advocating for Criminal Justice reform. In 2015, Wise donated $190,000 to the University of Colorado Law School Innocence Project, which was later renamed the Korey Wise Innocence Project. The Innocence Project is dedicated to helping free wrongfully convicted people. The Innocence Project has exonerated 375 people in the United States by DNA testing, including 21 people who served time on death row. There is a total of 5,284 years served and 60% of the exonerated being African American and 31% being Caucasian.11

Despite receiving the largest amount of money, Wise revealed that no amount of money would be able to make up for what he went through in prison. Korey Wise went through so much physical and mental abuse while in jail that no amount of money can give him back those years of pain and suffering that he had to serve for a crime he didn’t commit.12

On May 31, 2019, an American crime drama was televised and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, that premiered in four parts. The Title of the show was When They See Us, and it dug deep into the story of each of the Central Park Five and even more on Korey Wise. When They See Us gave Korey Wise and the other four men the recognition that they deserved. It showed the world how unlawful and unfaithful the justice system is. The onscreen action provided on When They See Us only represents half of what Wise went through and continues to go through to this day.13

  1. Gina Tron, “What Was the Extent Of The Central Park Jogger’s Injuries?” Oxygen (Website), May 31, 2019. https://www.oxygen.com/martinis-murder/central-park-joggers-injuries-trisha-meili ↵
  2. Heather Finn, “‘When They See Us’ Reveals the Heartbreaking Truth About Korey Wise,” Goodhousekeeping (Website), September 20, 2019, https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a27757516/korey-wise-central-park-five/ ↵
  3. “Antron McCray,” April 7, 2018, The National Registry for Exonerations, https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3423 ↵
  4. LaPorsche Thomas, “‘He’s the magic’ | Central Park members talk seeing Korey Wise’s tragic struggle in ‘When They See Us,’” Alive (Website), June 13, 2019. https://www.11alive.com/article/news/entertainment-news/hes-the-magic-central-park-5-members-talk-seeing-korey-wises-tragic-struggle-in-when-they-see-us/85-a23eb84c-e273-4662-8931-72de2848eaf9 ↵
  5. Gabrielle Bruney, “The Central Park Five were falsely convicted. Here’s how the truth came out.” Esquire (Website), June 1, 2019. https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a27688229/when-they-see-us-central-park-five-matias-reyes/ ↵
  6. Deepika Rajani, “Korey Wise now: what happened to ‘Central Park Five’ member featured in When They See Us,” inews (Website), August 4, 2019. https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/korey-wise-central-park-five-now-what-happened-when-they-see-us-actor-jharrel-jerome-300875 ↵
  7. Laura Martin, “Matias Reyes: what happened to the man who really committed ‘Central Park Five’ rape, and how he was caught” inews (Website), August 4, 2019. https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/matias-reyes-central-park-five-now-rape-when-they-see-us-what-happened-netflix-299413 ↵
  8. Heather Finn, “‘When They See Us’ Reveals the Heartbreaking Truth About Korey Wise,” Goodhousekeeping (Website), September 20, 2019. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a27757516/korey-wise-central-park-five/ ↵
  9. Heather Finn, “‘When They See Us’ Reveals the Heartbreaking Truth About Korey Wise,” Goodhousekeeping (Website), September 20, 2019. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a27757516/korey-wise-central-park-five/ ↵
  10. Josiah Bates, “Netflix’s When They See Us is putting Central Park Five Prosecutors on the Defense,” Time (Website), June 13, 2019. https://time.com/5605572/netflix-central-park-five-prosecutors/ ↵
  11. “DNA Exonerations in the United States,” Innocence Project (Website), https://innocenceproject.org/dna-exonerations-in-the-united-states/ ↵
  12. Deepika Rajani, “Korey Wise now: what happened to ‘Central Park Five’ member featured in When They See Us,” inews (Website), August 4, 2019. https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/korey-wise-central-park-five-now-what-happened-when-they-see-us-actor-jharrel-jerome-300875 ↵
  13. Kenny Herzog, “When the Key Figures From When They See Us are now,” Vulture (Website), June 13, 2019. https://www.vulture.com/article/when-they-see-us-central-park-five-now-explainer.html ↵

Tags from the story

  • Central Park Five, Korey Wise, wrongful conviction

Share this post

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on print
Share on email
Maya Simon

Maya Simon

Author Portfolio Page

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Avatar
    Linae Totten 24 Jan 2021 Reply

    Hello Maya! Thank you for highlighting the wrongful incarceration of the Central Park Five. Particularly, Korey Wise’s story. The coerced confessions and subsequent convictions of these young men alone were despicable. Korey Wise was tried and sentenced as an adult and lost over 10 years of his life behind an overzealous district attorney. Linda Fairstein’s conduct was nothing less than criminal. Even though Matias Reyes found what was left of his conscience and confessed, the positive DNA match was truly Korey Wise’s saving grace.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

StMU History Media

A Student Organization of St. Mary's University of San Antonio Texas

Sponsors

  • College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, St. Mary's University
  • Department of History, St. Mary's University
  • Department of Political Science, St. Mary's University
  • Center for Catholic Studies, St. Mary's University

Support Services

  • The Learning Assistance Center, St. Mary's University
  • Louis J. Blume Library Services, St. Mary's University
  • STRIVE Career Center, St. Mary's University
  • Academic Technology Services, St. Mary's University

About

  • About Us
  • Our Authors
  • Our Archive
  • Contacts

© All rights reserved

Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest