Book Review: The Central Park Five by Sarah Burns

In April 1989, a white woman was brutally raped and severely beaten while jogging in Central Park. Five teenagers were quickly apprehended - four Black and one Hispanic. All five confessed, were tried and convicted even though there was no evidence linking them to the victim. Over a decade later, DNA tests linked serial rapist Matias Reyes to the crime, finally exposing the deep-seated race and class divisions in NYC that led to these young boys being accused back in 1989.

Having watched When They See Us on Netflix (which is excellent, by the way - if you haven’t seen it, please check it out) and listened to numerous podcasts on the case, I already knew what I was getting into when I picked up this book. And yet my anger and overwhelming empathy and sadness for these boys was as heightened as ever. They were failed on so many levels - they were failed by law enforcement, by the media, by the judicial system.

My phone is full of notes that I made while reading. I don’t have the space to cover all of them, but something that really stuck with me was how the media treated these boys. From the very beginning they were guilty, with racist terminology being used in newspapers, referring to them as “savages.” Even all those years later when DNA evidence led to their convictions being overturned, this was hardly covered in the media. A lot of people actually thought they just got off on a technicality. Their defence teams, on the whole, also did a horrendous job of defending them.

Sarah Burns does a wonderful job. She has worked closely with the young men in order to uncover the truth, and you can tell this book is impeccably researched. My only minor issue is that I felt it was a little short - I’d have liked to have spent more time with each of The Exonerated Five (as they are now known) and learnt a little more about how they have adjusted to life post-prison.

Johann