The anti-death penalty lobby never sleeps. Unable to convince the public that savage murderers should be given radio shows rather than lethal injections, anti-death penalty zealots have turned to lying about proof of guilt. With convicted felons constantly being "proved innocent," the public finally began to sour on the death penalty. The phony DNA "exoneration" project was the first attack on the death penalty that ever worked.
Years after juries have rendered their guilty verdicts, criminal defense lawyers are still hard at work, hatching new theories of innocence and dredging up phony "new" evidence. Once the police, prosecutors and victims have all moved on, the defense bar can spin its lies to gullible reporters without contradiction. Evidently, it never occurs to journalists that a criminal defense lawyer might lie to them.
Consequently, it was only a matter of time before the criminal defense lobby would turn to the 1989 wilding attack in Central Park. The current baby seals of the "exoneration" racket are the feral beasts who raped, brutalized and nearly murdered a female jogger.
Strictly adhering to formula, the defense bar has produced a shocking confession from a criminal who-coincidentally-can no longer be prosecuted for the attack. Matias Reyes now claims he alone raped the jogger.
Amazingly, this barbaric crime is a good target for a baseless "exoneration." The savages have served their time, the victim remembers nothing, and no one cares as much as the anti-death penalty fanatics. In fact, the Manhattan district attorney himself adamantly opposes the death penalty. With little cost, he can look bold and honest by overturning the jury verdicts.
In addition to the media’s lies about the DNA evidence covered in last week’s column, credulous reporters are also retailing these lies about Reyes:
This is preposterous. It is undisputed that about 30 wild young men were rampaging through Central Park the night of April 19, 1989, engaging in wolf pack attacks on joggers and bicyclists. The 30 savages didn’t know one another any more than the mob of hoodlums molesting women after the 2000 Puerto Rican Day parade knew one another. Two defendants, Antron McCray and Raymond Santana, had never met their co-defendant, Yusef Salaam, until the night of the attack and did not know his name. This did not cause the jury any consternation before voting to convict all three.
"Nearly identical" evidently refers to the fact that both crimes were: (1) rapes, (2) in a park. That’s where the similarity ends. In the first rape, Reyes casually approached a woman doing tai chi in Central Park in the middle of the day and began chatting her up. When she moved away from him, he pounced, beating her about the head and raping her. Her screams attracted a man who broke off the attack.
The gang rape of the jogger two days later was at night. It was an ambush. The victim was dragged 200 yards, rendered unconscious and left in a coma. The crimes are so dissimilar that, under the rules of evidence, one rape could not have been admitted into evidence in a trial of the other.
Reyes’ "other crimes" include: rape, sodomy, robbery, burglary, raping and butchering a pregnant woman in the presence of her three children, a sexual attack on his mother, rape at night, rape in broad daylight, rape in a park, rape in a home, rape on a street, rape of a woman doing tai chi, attempted rape, simple rape and rape plus murder. The only "typical" characteristic of Reyes’ crimes is their utter bestiality, which is not inconsistent with a gang rape.
The idea that rape is such a rare occurrence in New York that only one rapist could possibly be responsible for both rapes is insane. There were 3,254 reported rapes in New York in 1989. Prolific though he was, Reyes had some help from other New York rapists.
Many criminal "exonerations" you have read about were concocted by anti-death penalty zealots and pawned off on gullible journalists. The difference is, this time, the facts are available on Lexis-Nexis.
