When They See Us: ‘I was alone’ Korey Wise’s heartbreaking plea ahead of Netflix series

Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana were branded the Central Park Five by the police and press when they were convicted for the rape of Trisha Meili.

Trisha was out jogging in Central Park in 1989 when she was attacked and sexually assaulted.

It wasn’t until 2001 that Matias Reyes came forward and confessed to the attack leading to the five being exonerated.

All five were imprisoned but Korey asked Ava to portray his story differently as he didn’t view his experience in the same way to Yusef, Kevin, Antron and Raymond.

When the five men sat down with Oprah Winfrey for When They See Us Now, Ava revealed she wanted to focus almost an entire episode on Korey’s time in prison.

Korey was not originally one of the suspects in the investigation into the Trisha’s rape but simply accompanied Yusef to the station.

As he waited he was pulled in for interrogation and still has “mixed feelings” over his decision to go and support Yusef.

His experience serving time in prison was very different to the other four men because as he was 16 he was tried and sentenced as an adult before being sent to Rikers Island.

Antron, Yusef, Kevin and Raymond all went to juvenile prison first.

In the Netflix series, Korey can be seen being beaten up – at one point so badly doctors tell prison guards it would be a miracle if he survived the attack.

You can tell my story, but you need to know right now I feel that it’s four plus one

Ava Duvernay

Korey also spent large amounts of time in solitary confinement reflecting on his childhood and teenage years before he was locked up.

And it seems Ava was keen to show exactly how different his 11.5 years in prison was after Korey opened up to her about how he viewed the five men.

She told Oprah: “When I first sat with [Korey], he said, ‘Ava, you can tell my story, but you need to know right now I feel that it’s four plus one.

“Because at least they were together, and I was alone.’”

The other men also did not realised how bad Korey’s time in prison was until they saw the fourth and final episode.

Talking about how Korey’s experience led to Matias Reyes’ confession, Yusef said: “Here Korey was, he wasn’t even a suspect.

“And he goes down, and he becomes the absolute thing that freed us.”

Also in When They See Us Now, Antron opened up about his relationship with his father Bobby, who is seen in the series telling his son to tell the police what they want to hear so he can go home.

Antron said he would never forgive his father branding him a “coward”.

“I have six kids. Four boys, two girls. I couldn’t image doing that to my son,” he told Oprah.

When They See Us is available to watch now on Netflix.

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