Korey Wise: The Original Ride or Die

Korey Wise, born in 1974, is a friend that I would love to have in this day and age. The amount of loyalty and strength this man possessed is unmatched and is to be admired by many. Wise is the eldest of the Exonerated 5, five young men who were wrongly accused of a horrific rape that took place in Harlem's Central Park. For this reason, he suffered a much worse fate than the four other gentlemen accused of the crime. Anton McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Raymond Santana Jr. were all between the ages of 13 and 15 at the time of the trial. Wise, being the only one 16 years or older. The court took advantage of this, and tried him as an adult, forcing him to skip over juvenile detention and go straight to Rikers Island. After being wrongfully arrested, Harlem police coerced them into making false confessions after being physically and verbally abused, starved, and deprived of sleep. These confessions would later be used against them during their trial, making it that much easier for the judge and jury to send them all to jail. They were all sentenced to prison time with sentences ranging from 5-13 years. Wise served the longest sentence of all. The only reason he ended up at the police station in the first place was because he was looking after Salaam, his good friend. He wasn't even one of the suspects, but because he was tried as an adult, he received the longest sentence and had the worst experience in prison.

Korey Wise, oldest of the Exonerated Five

After spending 13 years in prison, enduring hellacious beatings and spending a large amount of time in solitary confinement, Wise was released after the true rapist confessed. Matis Reyes. Wise encountered him twice during his prison sentence. However, the encounters were a dozen years apart. During the first encounter Wise actually got in a fight with Reyes. However, he had no idea that he was fighting the man who actually committed the crime he was serving time for. Reyes claimed he felt bad, and that confessing would be the right thing to do. In both of their encounters, Reyes never mentioned that he was the person responsible for ruining Wise's life.

Months later Wise was released. Years after he was released, he was awarded a 41 million dollar settlement from the state of New York to split amongst the four others. He spoke on the subject saying that he was grateful for the turn around in his life, however, no amount of money can replace what was stolen from him.

Here's a link for further research: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a27757516/korey-wise-central-park-five/