Korey Wise was the special guest at the first stop of the Crime + Punishment Brooklyn tour at the Gentlemen’s Factory in Flatbush.
After watching the two-hour film, Two Bees TV caught up with the activist during the event’s intermission and he discussed an array of topics.
Two Bees TV asked him how he felt watching victims be coerced by the NYPD to admit to crimes they didn’t commit in the documentary. “That’s the system for you. It doesn’t surprise me,” the Harlem native said.
Although he wasn’t wearing it, Korey Wise announced that he has an upcoming clothing line called Wise Apparel. He has an authentic New York swag and is always spotted on social media copping fresh pair of uptowns. Korey told the host that he stays off social media otherwise he’ll “lose his mind” but he looks forward to a possible collaboration with Nike.
The world is now paying attention to one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice done to five Black and Brown boys in the modern era. Known as the Central Park Five, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson and Korey Wise, spent years in prison for a rape crime that they did not commit. In 1989, the young Black and Brown teen-aged boys apprehended for “wilding in the park,” and later attached to a rape that happened the same night of their melee. Well, that statement in partially true. Korey Wise was not even in the park at the time. Korey was only present in support of his friend Yusef… a choice to be dedicated to his homie changed the rest of his life.
The boys were pressed for at least seven hours without attorneys or parents. By the time their “confessions” were taped, the boys had been peppered with threats, starved and promised they could go home if they pinned the story on a list of names of other boys that they did not know. It is important to note that the only two that really knew each other were Salaam and Wise. The boys complied, lying under pressure and this was the nail that doomed the minors.
The young men were convicted, based off these confessions. There was no evidence to support their guilt. They were later exonerated after the real rapist stepped up and took responsibility for the vicious and violent crime he perpetrated on the young jogger thant night.
Ken Burns produced an amazing documentary about their case. But many have come to know about this case because of Ava Duvernay’s new Netflix film, When They See Us.
Recently released is Korey Wise’s actual confession. Watch how the Assistant D.A. Elizabeth Lederer gives him a can of Pepsi Cola as she seals his doom.
Well, now her decision to prosecute these young men, have sealed her own professional doom. Earlier this week, she was forced to resign by students protesting her professorship at Columbia University. You took their life, the community will now take yours.
The lead prosecutor in the Central Park Five case resigned from Columbia Law School amid scrutiny following the release of Ava DuVernay’s critically-acclaimed, When They See Us series.
The documentary prompted students to launch a petition calling for the termination of Elizabeth Lederer. The Black Law Students Association at Columbia University wrote in a letter:
“The lives of these five boys were forever changed as a result of Lederer’s conduct,” the letter read. “During the investigation, Lederer and her colleagues used harmful, racist tactics, including physical abuse and coercion, to force confessions from the five minors. The case they built was founded on false information and an overwhelming lack of physical evidence. As a result, five boys spent their formative years in prison until the charges were vacated in 2002 after the real perpetrator confessed to the crime and DNA evidence linking him to the crime was discovered.”
Lederer announced her decision in a statement shared by Columbia Law School Dean Law Gillian Lester.
“I’ve enjoyed my years teaching at CLS, and the opportunity it has given me to interact with the many fine students who elected to take my classes,” she said in a statement. “However, given the nature of the recent publicity generated by the Netflix portrayal of the Central Park case, it is best for me not to renew my teaching application.”
Lederer worked part-time at the university as an adjunct faculty member and lecturer in law.
Lederer is played by Vera Farmiga in the four-part Netflix original series. The mini-series tells the real-life stories of Korey Wise, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Kevin Richardson who were all wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman. The defendants spent between six years to thirteen years in jail before the actual rapist confessed and they were exonerated in 2002. They were awarded a $41 million dollar settlement twelve years after their exoneration.
Netflix recently announced that When They See Us has become it’s most-watched original series but we don’t know the exact numbers yet.
