“The persuasive physical evidence against the five teens had apparently been misinterpreted.”
The CP 5 didn’t accidentally get the victim’s blood and hair on themselves. They didn’t confess without prompting to a crime they had no knowledge of. Reyes didn’t rape her and hold her down with multiple pairs of hands, while he was acting alone.
Just because DNA shows now that Reyes also raped the victim, does not mean that the CP 5 suddenly became innocent.
From what I read, there were a number of assaults in Central Park on that same night, with gangs of black teens going around "wilding." Maybe the Central Park Five were guilty of an assault, or assaults, but just not that assault.
In any case, their conviction was vacated when the actual assailant confessed years later --- and he was the only one DNA-linked to the victim.