When an inmate admits to the crime and DNA evidence proves they didn’t commit the crime they are innocent.
“As the DNA evidence from semen found at the scene didn't match any of the five boys, prosecutors relied solely on the initial interrogations.
“An analysis of the DNA evidence confirmed that he was the rapist, and the convictions of the Central Park Five were vacated.
The Central Park jogger case involves clearly coerced-compliant false confessions. That was a case in which five kids, 14, 15, and 16 years old, each of them [was] lead to believe that he would get to go home if he confessed. Each one calculated–given that they had been there from 14-30 hours of interrogation under tremendous pressure–that it was in his own best interest to cooperate.
Interestingly none of them actually confessed to raping the jogger. Each one implicated the four others and each one stated that he himself played a minimal role. So collectively there were five confessions, but in fact each defendant pointed a finger at the others.”