Gathered on January 16 for the School’s annual commemoration of the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Middlesex community considered some of the inequities that persist today, decades after his death, particularly within the criminal justice system. Illustrating these disparities through telling his personal account of wrongful conviction was guest speaker Kevin Richardson, whose harrowing experience has been detailed in the PBS documentary The Central Park Five and in the Netflix television miniseries When They See Us. Though some in the audience had watched these productions the prior weekend – and several joined discussions with Mr. Richardson the previous day – many were learning about his life for the first time and were moved by his resilience and determination to make a difference in the lives of others.
For years, Mr. Richardson allowed, he had found it difficult to share his story. “Then I realized it’s not just about me or my family,” he said. “It’s about you and the future.” And though it is painful to watch films about his experience, he added, “It’s necessary to see how it happened to a kid growing up in Harlem with dreams of playing basketball and the trumpet.”
Mr. Richardson recalled being an excited 14-year-old hanging out in Central Park on the night of April 19, 1989. But after seeing other teens assault bicyclists and an elderly man, he headed home, afraid to break his curfew. “That was the last day I was free,” he said. “Then it became a nightmare.”
Stopped by police, he ran in fear but was tackled to the ground by an officer and knocked out. He awoke in a police van headed to the Central Park Precinct, where he and several other Black and Latinx teens were arrested for “unlawful assembly and rioting” – suspected to be involved in the attacks in the park that night. Just wanting to go home, he hoped his mother would soon come and make everything all right.
Instead, when a female jogger was found who had been brutally beaten and sexually assaulted in the park that night, Mr. Richardson and four other teens were quickly labelled suspects in that crime. Questioned for 36 hours without a parent or legal counsel present, each confessed to participating in the attack on “the Central Park jogger,” as the victim came to be known. Subsequently, Mr. Richardson and the other accused youths were dubbed “the Central Park Five” by the media. Though crime scene DNA did not match any of the boys – and their stories did not line up – they were all convicted based on their coerced confessions.
“My mother always told me that the truth would come out,” Mr. Richardson recalled, “but the justice system was unbalanced toward the less fortunate – and that was us. I did seven years out of 10 for a crime I didn’t commit.”
In prison, he studied and earned his associate degree through a college program. Years after his release, an incarcerated murderer confessed to having attacked the jogger, and when his DNA matched the evidence, the convictions of the Central Park Five were overturned. They became “the Exonerated Five.”
Since then, in addition to his public speaking, Mr. Richardson has partnered with the Innocence Project, which works to create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for all. Rather than remain bitter about the past, he said, “I’m angry but not bitter. I’ve transformed my anger into something good: education, helping others, being a motivational speaker.”
And he is proud of the recognition he has received in recent years: Syracuse University created an endowed scholarship in his name and awarded him an honorary degree, and last December, a new sign – “Gate of the Exonerated” – was unveiled at one Central Park entrance.
Also honored to be carrying on Dr. King’s fight for social justice, Mr. Richardson said, “I’m optimistic, but we have a long way to go. Everybody needs to do their part.”