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25 Cardozo L. Rev. 1315 (2003-2004)
The Central Park Five, the Scottsboro Boys, and the Myth of the Bestial Black Man

handle is hein.journals/cdozo25 and id is 1331 raw text is: THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, AND THE MYTH OF THE BESTIAL BLACK MAN N. Jeremi Duru* That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we blacks are wise: Her bandage hides two festering sores That once perhaps were eyes.1 - Langston Hughes INTRODUCTION On August 23, 2002, a convicted rapist and murderer named Matias Reyes signed a sworn statement confessing to a rape with which he had not previously been connected.2 After crossing paths in a New York correctional facility with Kharey Wise, who was serving time for the rape Reyes committed,3 and who was having difficulty coping with incarceration,4 Reyes began to feel guilty about Wise's imprisonment.5 * Associate, Mehri & Skalet, Washington, D.C. J.D., Harvard Law School, 1999; M.P.P., Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, 1999; B.A., Brown University, 1995. 1 am grateful to my wife, Mellissa Campbell Duru, for her unconditional and loving support and to my son, Kanayo Alexander Duru, for his ceaseless inspiration and joy. In addition, I am grateful to The Honorable Damon J. Keith for his enduring mentorship, tutelage, and friendship. I also wish to thank Angela J. Davis, Khary Lazarre-White, Shavar D. Jeffries, Roger A. Fairfax, Tonya Robinson, and 0. Carter Snead for reviewing various drafts of this article and offering their thoughtful comments. Finally, I would like to thank Vicki C. Jackson, John Payton, David B. Wilkins, Christine Desan, Christopher F. Edley, Jr., Spencer Overton, and Robin Lenhardt for their support and inspiration. I Langston Hughes, Justice, quoted in MILTON MELTZER, LANGSTON HUGHES: A BIOGRAPHY 160 (1968). Hughes penned the poem in honor of the Scottsboro Boys, eight Alabama youths incarcerated in 1931 for a rape they did not commit. See Brent Pattison, Minority Youth in Juvenile Correction Facilities: Cultural Differences and the Right to Treatment, 16 LAW & INEQ. 573, 573 n.3 (1998). 2 See Christine Haughney, Central Park Rape Case Convictions in Question; Man with DNA Match Confessed, Attorneys Say, WASH. POST., Sept. 6, 2002, at A3. 3 See Karen Freifeld, DA 's Reversal in Jogger Case; Urges Judge to Vacate All Convictions in Central Park Attack, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 6, 2002, at A5. 4 See Kevin Flynn & Jim Dwyer, A Crime Revisited: The Suspect; V Just Had to Have Her,' a Rapist Told Lawyers, N.Y. TIMES, Dec. 6, 2002, at B4. 1315

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