Korey Wise (born Kharey Wise, July 26, 1972) is an American activist who travels the United States advocating for
criminal justice reform
Criminal justice reform addresses structural issues in criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Criminal justice reform can take place at any point where the cr ...
. Wise shares his stories of being wrongfully convicted in the
Central Park jogger case
The Central Park jogger case (events also referenced as the Central Park Five Case) was a criminal case over the aggravated assault and rape of a white woman in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, on April 19, 1989, occurring at the same time a ...
(along with Raymond Santana Jr., Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Yusef Salaam) for the attack on Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old woman who was jogging in
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
, as well as attacks on eight other people on the night of April 19, 1989. Wise spent approximately 14 years incarcerated, maintaining his innocence from 1989 until he was exonerated in 2002.
At 16 years old, Wise was the oldest of the so-called "Central Park Five", and was the only one of the five to serve all his time in the adult prison system. He was not a suspect in any of the crimes initially, and freely accompanied his friend to the police station. Once there, however, detectives decided to interrogate him about the rape of Meili, despite his name not originally being on the list of suspects.
In 2015, Wise donated $190,000 to the
University of Colorado Law School
The University of Colorado Law School is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. It is a public law school, with more than 500 students attending and working toward a Juris Doctor or Master of Studies in ...
Innocence Project, which was renamed the Korey Wise Innocence Project.
In 2019, the story was dramatized and released as a four-episode miniseries on Netflix entitled ''
When They See Us
''When They See Us'' is a 2019 American crime drama television miniseries created, co-written, and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, that premiered in four parts on May 31, 2019. It is based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case ...
''. Actor
Jharrel Jerome
Jharrel Jerome (born October 9, 1997) is an American actor and rapper who is best known for appearing in Barry Jenkins's acclaimed drama film ''Moonlight'' (2016), and for portraying Korey Wise in Ava DuVernay's Netflix miniseries '' When They ...
won the 2019
for his portrayal of Wise.
In July 2019, Wise purchased a condominium overlooking Central Park. He is the only one of the five who chose to continue to reside in New York City after his release. During the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, Wise helped provide sustenance to senior residents in Harlem.
References
External links
Korey Wise Innocence Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wise, Korey
1972 births
American prisoners and detainees
Living people
People wrongfully convicted of rape
American people convicted of rape
Activists from New York (state)
Activists for African-American civil rights
20th-century African-American people
Innocence Project