Abstract
While researching texts about the Central Park Jogger Case, I found two articles that discussed the importance of bio-forensic evidence. These articles explored the evidence that was recovered from the scene of the crime. They explain how DNA was used to isolate one perpetrator from the rest of the suspects. My goal in this paper is to give details about the case of bio-forensic evidence.
To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into four main sections, one of which has two subsections. In the first section, I give a brief introduction concerning the Central Park Jogger Case. In the second section, I discuss the procedure that was used to convict the suspects. In the third section, I explain the effectiveness of recovering DNA from the scene of a crime in the Central Park Jogger’s Case. I end my paper with a fourth section that offers possible solutions to similar cases.
Introduction
A 28-year old woman was raped and brutally assaulted in the spring of 1989 while she was jogging in Central Park, New York (Chalke 22). According to a report from the New York City Police Department, six African-American and Latino youths were charged with raping and savagely beating a female jogger. Videotaped confessions were used to convict the suspects (Chalke 22). The jogger was raped, sodomized, and beaten into a coma that lasted roughly 12 days. She was left in a ditch near New York City’s 102nd street transverse (Meili 110).
Main Body
The Investigation
On June 18, 2002, the New York City Police Department announced that DNA samples found at the scene of the crime matched those of a man known as Matias Reyes (Meili 145). The other five suspects had already served their corresponding sentences (Chalke 22). If a thorough investigation had been carried out in 1989, Matias Reyes would have been convicted as soon as was humanly possible. A veteran detective by the name of John Baeza agrees. According to Mr. Baeza, the forensic team should have been more meticulous in their investigation. Reyes raped and murdered several women shortly after the attack at Central Park (Chalke 24).
The semen from the crime scene could have been used to officially convict Matias Reyes. In this particular case, the police could be described as incompetent. The New York City forensic department failed to examine the semen samples found in 1989 (Meili 126). Forensic evidence could have been used to convict Reyes.
The Confession
Matias Reyes decided to confess to the sexual assault when DNA recovered from the victim’s clothes was found in 2002 (Meili 74).
In 2002, Matias Reyes was escorted to the scene of the crime by police officers (Chalke 22). Reyes confessed to raping the middle-aged woman. He assumed that he had killed her and left her in a ditch near New York City’s 102nd street transverse (Meili 92).
The suspects’ lawyers argued that Matias Reyes DNA could have been used to exonerate their clients (Chalke 22). The District Attorney’s office was therefore forced to re-examine the case. One of the suspects had already spent 13 years in prison (Meili 122).
Matias later pleaded guilty to four counts of rape (Chalke 24). Bio-forensic evidence also linked him to eight consecutive rape cases that occurred over 7 months (Meili 127).
Conclusion
Lawyers have argued that the five suspects were wrongly convicted based on their social backgrounds. The investigators also used racial profiling to build a case against the suspects. In the end, bio-forensic evidence was used to prove their innocence. The Central Park Jogger Case exposed various flaws in the American justice system (Chalke 23). It has encouraged law enforcers to act with both integrity and objectivity.
Works Cited
Chalke, Elizabeth. “Against all Odds.” The Daily Herald [Chicago] 2002, 1st edition: 22+.
Meili, Trisha. I Am the Central Park Jogger: A Story of Hope and Possibility. New York: Saxton, 2003. Print.