Yusef Salaam (shown in 1990), was one of five black
or Hispanic youths wrongfully convicted in the racially charged case
Five men wrongfully convicted in the
brutal 1989 rape of a jogger in New York's Central Park have settled a lawsuit
against the city for $40m (£24m).
The racially charged case shocked the city during some of its bleakest
years.
The sum must still be approved by the city's comptroller and a federal
judge.
The men, teenagers when the crime was committed, served 7-13 years in prison
before their exoneration in 2002 when evidence pointed to another man.
Fears of 'wilding'
The victim, a white 28-year-old investment banker, was severely beaten, raped
and left for dead in a bush. She had no memory of the attack.
Local youths Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray and Yusef
Salaam and Korey Wise, then aged 14-16, were arrested and interrogated for hours
without access to lawyers or their parents.
Supports of the Central Park Five rallied in New York
in 2013
They made confessions, and although they soon recanted and other evidence
indicated they had been elsewhere when the woman was attacked, they were
convicted and sentenced to years in prison.
The crime, occurring well before New York's current renaissance began in the
mid-1990s, shocked the city and provoked fears of gangs of black teenagers going
on crime rampages - "wilding", the media called it.
In 2002, an investigation by the Manhattan prosecutor determined a serial
violent offender named Matias Reyes had confessed to the attack and said he
acted alone.
In their legal action, the men accused New York prosecutors and police of
false arrest, malicious prosecution and a racially motivated conspiracy to
deprive the men of their civil rights.
The proposed settlement, which has not been officially announced by the city
but was reported widely by local newspapers on Thursday and Friday, would amount
to about $1m (£588,000) per year in prison for the men.
#BBC.CO.UK
