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Federal Judge Approves $41 Million Central Park Five Settlement

HeadlineSep 08, 2014

A federal judge has approved New York City’s $41 million settlement with the Central Park Five, wrongfully convicted of raping a female jogger in Central Park 25 years ago. The five black and Latino men were tried as teenagers. Media coverage at the time portrayed them as guilty and used racially coded terms to describe them. But their convictions were vacated in 2002 when the real rapist came forward and confessed, after the five had already served jail terms of up to 13 years. Each man of the five will receive around $1 million for each year they were wrongfully imprisoned. The agreement is one of several civil rights settlements under New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio after fierce opposition from his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg.

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