DA Wants Central Park Convictions Tossed

Dec. 4 -- The Manhattan district attorney will recommend that all verdicts against all five teenagers convicted in the infamous 1989 Central Park jogger rape case — including other attacks that night — be vacated, ABCNEWS has learned

Citing the recent confession of an imprisoned rapist, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is expected to ask a judge Thursday to vacate the convictions of the five men found guilty in the April 1989 brutal rape and beating of a 28-year-old jogger in Central Park and other attacks that night, sources inside the investigation told ABCNEWS.

Morgenthau has been widely expected to take that step, but sources told ABCNEWS he will also ask State Supreme Court Judge Charles Tejeda to vacate all the verdicts against the men, including other judgments stemming from the infamous night of "wilding." In addition to the rape, the defendants were convicted of assault, sex abuse and attempted murder for allegedly attacking eight other people in Central Park.

Morgenthau's decision comes as a remarkable turnabout in a case that stunned the city and made "wilding" a national household expression. At one time, New York prosecutors were sure of the men's guilt. All five of the then-teenage suspects — Raymond Santana, 14, Kevin Richardson, 14, Antron McCray, 15, Kharey Wise, 16, and Yusef Salaam, 15 — had allegedly confessed to police.

The assault left the jogger near death and in a coma for 12 days. She did not remember anything about the attack. At their trial, the suspects said their confessions had been coerced and though prosecutors had little other evidence, a jury convicted the five defendants. They have since completed sentences of more than five years in prison.

Division Over the Decision

However, in an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS' Primetime in September, convicted murderer-rapist Matias Reyes said that he alone was responsible for the attack on the jogger.

DNA tests — which were not as sophisticated in 1989 as they are now — have tied semen found at the crime scene to Reyes. The admission and new evidence forced Morgenthau and his office to re-examine the case and reach the recommendation for the five men.