Courtesy Cordell Cleare/Courtesy Cordell Cleare
A decade after their exoneration, the Central Park Five’s proceedings drag on.
The lawsuit filed by the five men convicted, imprisoned and freed in the 1989 Central Park Jogger case must be pushed to trial following a turning-point ruling by Manhattan Federal Judge Deborah Batts.
Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Kharey Wise and Raymond Santana deserve their day in court in proceedings that have dragged on for a decade. And taxpayers deserve to know how much liability the law will impose.
Democratic mayoral contender Bill de Blasio is among urging the city to settle the claims of the five men. He sees “a moral obligation to right this injustice” before it’s clear that police and prosecutors maliciously perpetrated a miscarriage of justice. Republican Joe Lhota more prudently said he would review the facts if elected.
Batts spurned an effort by city lawyers to subpoena unused footage from a documentary produced by historian Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah and his son-in-law David McMahon.
The lawyers sought the material in hope of finding statements they might use to impeach the credibility of the five. Batts upheld Burns’ right to withhold the footage under protections afforded to journalists. Key to Batts’ decision was the shameful fact that, a decade into the case, the city has yet question the men under oath.
Batts must now drive the case forward with all deliberate speed.
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=14542
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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