Sarah Burns and her father, noted filmmaker Ken Burns, are working on a documentary film about five teenagers who in 1989 were coerced into confessing to the rape and beating of a female jogger in New York City's Central Park.
The film will complement The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding, a book on the case released last month that Sarah Burns had been working on for eight years.
In her book, Burns uses the stories of the young men, police officers, attorneys, the victim and the actual rapist, to unravel elements of the crime and the prosecution. The book gives a portrait of the social and political elements in New York City two decades ago that led to the loss of civil rights for these young men.
During the prosecution, media reports described the teens as a "wolfpack." Noted business and political figures, including hotel magnate, Donald Trump, called for the death penalty and a public hanging in Central Park for the oldest suspect, Burns told radio host Tom Joyner today.
On April 19, 1989, Patricia Meili, a 28-year-old white female, was found brutally beaten in Central Park. In less than a week, five African and Latino American youths between the ages of 14 and 16 confessed to the crime. Even as they quickly recanted the inconsistent confessions, they were tried as adults and convicted of rape, despite the absense of eyewitnesses or DNA evidence linking them to the rape and beating.
The young men were given prison sentences ranging from six to 14 years and served their full terms before serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to being the sole perpetrator. In 2001 DNA testing proved Reyes committed the crime.
While the convictions against all five young men have been vacated, they have not received an appology or restitution from New York City.
"The men now have jobs and families, but clearly their lives have been changed," Burns said.
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