When They See Us

 When They See Us is a mini series on Netflix that brings the audience through the Central Park 5 case. This was a massive case back in the late 80s/early 90s where 5 young black and hispanic boys were wrongfully convicted for the rape and intense beating of a woman jogging through Central Park. This whole case focuses on the fact that these boys were coerced into giving false confessions. The investigators were able to craft a story where the boys all told how the other boys played a part into the crime. There was no trace evidence at the scene of the crime that would prove these boys guilty. They all ended up serving significant amounts of time in prison due to this. The true perpetrator eventually came out in the 2000s confessing to the crime, and DNA evidence could prove his guilt. 

Since this case was so high profile and was widely covered by the media, it brought a lot of attention to the corrupt criminal justice system and how cases such as these can be racially motivated. These people with large amounts of power were able to craft some far fetched story that somehow people were able to believe, disregarding the fact there truly was no evidence. The mini series definitely does a great job at telling their stories and I highly recommend watching!

Comments

  1. Judi GentlemanJanuary 28, 2026 at 6:21 PM

    It was reading and watching the news on the Central Park 5 case that I learned how the police will lie to a person during interrogation to the point where the person will make a false confession. Sometimes the confessions are made due to promises that will never be fulfilled, lies about having evidence that will convict them, exhaustion from hours of being interrogated, and it is legal. Long hours of multiple police repeating over and over how the person committed the crime, to justify the arrest, can have the person admit to committing the crime when in reality they have not committed the crime. I haven't watched the mini-series but I will after this post.

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  2. Reese BeardJanuary 29, 2026 at 6:56 AM

    Sometimes I listen to true crime podcasts, but I have never heard of this case. I think it is very unfortunate that ethnic minorities are targeted/ assumed fault of a crime. This is because the system American has set up and the stereotypes people have of certain ethnicities. Hopefully soon, we can break this unjust system and see improvements in the criminal justice system.

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