Posted on 03/17/2003 6:03:09 PM PST by Fixit
STAMFORD -- The local woman who became known as the Central Park jogger after being raped, beaten and left for dead 14 years ago is ready to share her story.
She also is ready to tell the world her name.
The woman, now in her early 40s, will make her first public speaking appearance April 10 at the Holiday Inn Select in Stamford at an event promoting Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Her appearance, hosted by the Stamford-based Sexual Assault Crisis and Education Center, will come two days after her book about the ordeal is published.
...
Doctors didn't expect her to live through the night. But she survived.
"One doctor said that because it was likely I'd be a vegetable, it might have been better if I had died," the woman said in an anonymous interview published in the April issue of O magazine.
....
With the help of the Achilles Club, an organization that helps the disabled compete in athletics, she ran the New York City Marathon in 1995. The route passed by the ravine in the park where she was left to die.
Five black and Hispanic youths ages 14 to 16 were arrested in the attack and sentenced to prison after allegedly confessing.
Their convictions were overturned in December after imprisoned killer and serial rapist Matias Reyes, 31, said he alone had attacked the jogger. DNA tests later proved he raped her.
The five originally implicated in the attack have filed notice that they may sue, saying they were falsely accused and their confessions coerced
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(Excerpt) Read more at stamfordadvocate.com ...
That's what the doctor said.
I guess she meant that one doctor said that about her.
You have freepmail
I also wish that this event wasn't in the hands of Her Royal Richness, the Princess of Self-Importance, Oprah Winfrey. Man, am I tired of her.
I'm not sure that they'll be able to recover against the state, given that they at one point did admit complicity. I wrote the following analysis over at my pitiful blog last December:
(Between my first and second years of law school I summer interned for a Judge of the NYS Court of Claims, the court of original jurisdiction for unjust conviction and imprisonment cases (commonly called 8-b claims) in New York State.)NOTE: Though I am admitted to the NY Bar, this is way (WAY) outside my area of current expertise, so the preceding should not be taken as legal advice. (Or relied on by anyone for any reason. ;-)I worked that summer on an unjust conviction and imprisonment case that had been heard by another Court of Claims judge, a judge who passed away after the trial but before he drafted his opinion. I listened to the transcript tapes of the entire trial & reviewed all filed papers. My post is based upon this experience and a quick refresher peek I took at the Court of Claims website today.
Claimaints (what plaintiffs in the Court of Claims system are called) must not only prove that they are not guilty of the crime for which they were convicted/imprisoned, they must also demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that they had nothing to do with the crime, and that "he did not commit any of the acts charged in the accusatory instrument or his acts or omissions charged in the accusatory instrument did not constitute a felony or misdemeanor against the state."
The burden of proof required for a plaintiff to prevail on a case brought for wrongful imprisonment under the Court of Claims Act is very high, so high that the Judge I interned for stated that it could almost never be met. He told me that essentially someone had to prove that they are not only innocent, but that they never admitted guilt nor claimed to have any role in the crime.
So, right off the bat any plea-bargained defendants can never bring a claim, nor can anyone who has ever made any admission of complicity in the crime.
Defendants must in essence prove themselves not just innocent, but they must have maintained all along that they are innocent, and they must not be guilty of any lesser crimes arising out of the original incident.
I'm not terribly familiar with the fact pattern in the Central Park Jogger case, so I leave it as exercise for the reader to determine applicability.
UPDATE: Just to be clear, this discussion deals with what it takes to win a monetary judgment against NY State for unjust conviction and imprisonment. It presupposes that the claimaint has already had their conviction(s) overturned.
I did a quick bit of checking and the best I can come up with is "I don't know."
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