Ken Burns says Bill de Blasio agrees to settle 'Central Park Five' suit
theGRIO REPORT - This week, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said New York City's next mayor will settle the longstanding civil suit filed by the 'Central Park Five'...
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns told HuffPost Live‘s Josh Zepps that New York City’s next mayor will settle the longstanding civil suit filed by the ‘Central Park Five.’
The $250-million suit was filed back in 2003 by the five black and Latino teens wrongly convicted of assaulting and raping a young woman who had been jogging in New York’s Central Park on April 19, 1989.
The teens were fully exonerated in 2002, when DNA evidence cleared them of any crime. Their story, the time they spent behind bars, (upwards of 13 years) and their freedom were brought to light in Burns’ documentary The Central Park Five.
“Bill de Blasio, the mayor-elect, has agreed to settle this case,” Burns said of the suit’s status. “And though, this is justice delayed way too long, we feel that eventually, the [Central Park Five] will not only be exonerated…but they will have justice, they will see some more closure, they will be able to made whole.”
TheGrio | Ken Burns examines lives lost, racial bias in ‘Central Park Five’
Reps from both the de Blasio campaign and the Public Advocate office have referred all inquiries on Burns’ comment to an earlier statement de Blasio released back in January:
“As a city, we have a moral obligation to right this injustice. It is in our collective interest—the wrongly accused, their families and the taxpayer—to settle this case and not let another year slip by without action.”
Follow theGrio.com’s Todd Johnson on Twitter @rantoddj
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