When They See Us (2019) 4/4

When They See Us - Part 4

This installment can be easily broken into two pieces. The first hour of this 88 minute episode is focused on Korey Wise. It begins with him getting convicted and sent to Riker's Island. He spends the next 13 years of his life in prison. He moves around a little bit in that time. He spends a lot of time in solitary because it was safer for him. Other inmates wanted to hurt him for his supposed role in the crime that was committed in Central Park in 1989. Most guards were happy to look the other way. There was one guard who was nice to him.

Korey becomes eligible for parole more than once. He tries, the first time, to convince the parole board that he should be given another chance but they refuse to give it to him unless he accepts responsibility for the crime for which he was convicted. He can't bring himself to that.

Things finally change in 2002 when another inmate steps forward and admits that he raped the jogger. He was locked up in the same prison as Korey. He was there because of other rapes he committed. They check his story out. He provides blood samples which match the blood on the clothes of the jogger. The detectives involved in the case refuse to believe that this exonerates the other five. They think that it just means that there was a sixth person involved.

Kevin, Antron, Ray, Yusef, and Korey are exonerated. Korey and Ray are released from prison. There is a celebration for them in Harlem. Before the credits role there is a brief glimpse at what has happened to the five since they were exonerated in 2002 and since they settled their lawsuit against the city in 2014.

Thoughts

There are two more pieces that I want to watch about this case before I move on to other things. The first is the one-hour special that Oprah Winfrey did with the five. The second is the documentary that Ken Burns put together about 10 years ago about the case. It is about 2 hours long. I am planning to watch them in that order. The Ken Burns movie can be found on Amazon for a nominal price. The Oprah Winfrey special is also available on Netflix.

This was a powerful piece of television and definitely worth the watch. It is about 5 hours in length. Korey is the only one of the five who was played by the same actor throughout. It helped to know that the story ultimately had a happy and hopeful ending. Despite that fact it still wasn't easy to watch.