Korey Wise served nearly 12 years in prison for a violent crime he did not commit; he was later cleared of any wrongdoing. At 16 years old, Korey was the oldest of five innocent Black and Latino boys (ages 14-16) who were wrongly convicted and imprisoned in connection with the infamous 1989 rape and assault of a white female jogger in Central Park.

Although he was not a suspect, Korey had accompanied his friend, Yusef Salaam, to the police station when he was brought in for questioning. However, once at the station, Korey was aggressively interrogated and eventually coerced into signing a false confession, without proper counsel and guardian oversight. Even though DNA and other evidence failed to connect the five boys to the rape, and the coerced confessions from each young man differed with regard to the location, time and description of the victim, a jury found all five young men guilty. They would become known as the Central Park Five. As the oldest, Korey was tried as an adult and sentenced to 5 to 15 years on Rikers Island, which included long periods in solitary confinement.

While in prison, Korey met an inmate, a serial rapist, who confessed to committing the crime for which the Central Park Five were convicted. DNA tests confirmed the inmate’s guilt and in 2002, after almost 12 years of being incarcerated for a crime they did not commit, Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana were exonerated. In 2014, they were awarded a $41 million settlement, although the City of New York denied any wrongdoing in convicting five innocent teenagers.

During the trial, the media often used an offensive term, “wilding,” to describe the attack in Central Park. Many viewed the use of this term as an attempt to paint the accused as dangerous and scary. No one told the five boys’ side of the story for a long time. Fortunately, Ava DuVernay’s highly acclaimed mini-series When They See Us finally tells the true story from the perspectives of the Central Park Five themselves.

Korey Wise is the only one of the five who continued residing in New York City. He is a public speaker and criminal justice reform advocate.