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Gate of the Exonerated unveiled in Central Park

By FOX 5 NY STAFF
Updated  December 19, 2022 12:28pm EST
Central Park
FOX 5 NY

Gate of the Exonerated in Central Park

A crowd cheered as a veil was removed from a carved stone naming a 110th Street entrance to Central Park in honor of five men who were falsely accused of assaulting a woman in the park in 1989. The entrance is now called the Gate of the Exonerated.

NEW YORK - One of Central Park's entrances has a new name in honor of the men formerly known as the Central Park Five and now known as The Exonerated Five.

The Gate of the Exonerated was unveiled Monday morning.

It honors all who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes and was inspired by the acquittal of the Exonerated Five.  The sign also recognized the ongoing struggle and fight to ensure justice for all.

The gate is located on Central Park North and is mid-block between Malcolm X Boulevard and Fifth Ave.

This is the first newly named entrance for Central Park since 1862.

The brutal 1989 assault and rape of 28-year-old white investment banker Trisha Meili, who was in a coma for 12 days after the attack, was considered emblematic of New York City's lawlessness in an era when the city recorded 2,000 murders a year.

Gate of the Exonerated unveiled in Central Park

The newly named entrance to Central Park was inspired by the acquittal of the 5 teens wrongfully convicted of assaulting a woman in 1989.

Five teenagers were convicted in the attack and served six to 13 years in prison. Their convictions were overturned in 2002 after evidence linked a convicted serial rapist and murderer, Matias Reyes, to the attack.

After a lengthy review, prosecutors concluded the teenagers' confessions, made after hours of interrogations by NYPD detectives, were deeply flawed.

The Central Park Five, now sometimes known as the "Exonerated Five," received a $40 million settlement from the city. Their case inspired books, movies and television shows, including the award-winning Netflix drama series "When They See Us."

With The Associated Press. The AP and FOX 5 NY do not usually identify victims of sexual assault but Meili went public in 2003 and published a book titled "I Am the Central Park Jogger."