Exonerated

Just within the past ten years, and with the passing of time, we’ve seen numerous cases of men being exonerated after serving decades in jails for crimes that they’ve never committed. We have seen stories like Emmett Till, who at the age of 14, was lynched because he was accused of grabbing a white woman; only to find out that Carolyn Bryant Donham lied about her account. Donham, stating in an interview that when she said,“Emmett grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her, ‘that part is not true’.Even the tragic story of George Stinney, another teenager accused of murdering 2 small girls, was sentenced to die in South Carolina and is the youngest person in America given a death sentence; 70 years later, Stinney was exonerated on these charges. Also, let’s not forget the tragic story of another incident in NY, the Central Park 5, who won a 14 year court battle and settled with the city for $41 million. These stories remain America’s dirty little secret, especially when it pertains to the unfair treatment of blacks in this country. Today, we can only add to these not-so-secret movements that aim to incarcerate people of color in this country. 26 years after their conviction, two of the men sentenced for the another Central Park rape have been exonerated due to false claims.

Back then, VanDyke Perry and Gregory Counts were only 21 and 19, and were accused of kidnapping and raping a white woman in the park in 1991. Perry and Counts have always maintained their innocence. There was no evidence that connected them to a rape, the victim had stopped cooperating with the prosecution before the trial. Prosecutors actually had to force the victim to testify. With no evidence and a questionable victim, Perry and Counts were convicted of multiple charges, including first-degree rape. Perry spent 10 years in prison and Counts spent 26 years in prison after being paroled last year.

Lies Exposed

After reaching out to the Innocence Project, testing was done on the woman’s underwear, which led investigators to a different man. However, the victim had already told officials that she would sell sex for drugs and that is where the DNA may have originated. After speaking with the woman again, she finally recanted her entire story. She let them know her boyfriend made her lie on Perry and Counts because he was under suspicion of shooting Perry. This woman faces no charges because of the statute of limitations.

Perry told The Associated Press that the woman’s lies, “really destroyed my life. I couldn’t get decent jobs, but i’m determined. I have kids, and I had to strive for them. Even when my back was hurting, and I started getting gray hair too young from working so hard, I had faith.”

There is no word yet on a civil suit that will be launched against the state of New York, the woman, and anyone else who may have participated in this unfair judgment.