Central Park Five

In 2003, a year after their convictions were vacated, the Central Park Five filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of New York and the police officers and prosecutors who had worked towards their convictions. In September of 2012 the City of New York subpoenaed all the materials from the film. In February of 2013 the ruling squashed the subpoena in favor of Florentine Films.

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. Directed and produced by Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns, the film chronicles the Central Park Jogger case, from the perspective of the five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice

Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon discuss the term, 'wilding.'

Film making has become a family business for Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and Dave McMahon.

Natalie Byfield discusses the horror of the death penalty even being talked about in the context of the Central Park Five case.

Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana discuss the manipulation of their interrogation.

THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. Directed and produced by Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns, the film chronicles the Central Park Jogger case, from the perspective of the five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice

The Central Park Five describe their lives before April 20, 1989. New Yorkers talk about a city divided between the very rich and the very poor. In 1984 crack cocaine comes to the city and the crime rate soars.

The media response to the Central Park Jogger case was swift and prejudiced.

After the jogger was discovered the detectives tried to fit the narrative to the five teenagers they had in custody.

The police controlled the story to the news media and for them, all the pieces came into place. Upon closer investigation the time sequence of the jogger's movement do not add up with the police narrative. It does not matter once guilt is established, through the confessions, and they carry the case.

Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and Dave McMahon discuss their film, Central Park Five