Korey Wise (born Kharey Wise, July 26, 1972) is an American activist who travels the United States advocating for

criminal justice reform Criminal justice reform is the reform of criminal justice systems. Stated reasons for criminal justice reform include reducing crime statistics, racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, under-reporting, and ...

. Wise shares his stories of being wrongfully convicted in the

Central Park jogger case The Central Park jogger case (sometimes termed the Central Park Five case) was a criminal case concerning the assault and rape of Trisha Meili, a woman who was running in Central Park in Manhattan, New York, on April 19, 1989. Crime in New Yor ...

(along with Raymond Santana Jr., Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Yusef Salaam) for the attack on Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old white woman who was jogging in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

, as well as attacks on eight other people on the night of April 19, 1989. Wise spent approximately 14 years incarcerated, maintaining his innocence from 1989 until he was exonerated in 2002.

Central Park Five

At 16 years old, Wise was the oldest of the "Central Park Five", five teenagers wrongly sentenced in the Central Park jogger case. He was the only one of the five to serve all his time in the adult prison system. He was not a suspect in any of the crimes initially, and freely accompanied his friend to the police station. Once there, however, detectives decided to interrogate him about the rape of Meili, despite his name not originally being on the list of suspects. After prolonged police interrogation, Wise eventually gave a taped confession to the crime, despite not having committed it. Wise was convicted of assault, sexual abuse, and rioting. Wise was exonerated in 2002 after Matias Reyes admitted to the crime and DNA testing proved his guilt. In 2014, Wise and the other four exonerated convicts settled a federal lawsuit against New York City, winning $41 million. After the Central Park jogger case took place in 1989,

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

put out full-page newspaper ads in New York calling for the

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...

of the Central Park Five.

Activism

In 2015, Wise donated $190,000 to the

University of Colorado Law School The University of Colorado Law School is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. It is a public law school, with more than 500 students attending and working toward a Juris Doctor or Master of Studies i ...

Innocence Project, which was renamed to the Korey Wise Innocence Project. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Wise helped provide sustenance to senior residents in Harlem. Wise, along with Yusef Salaam, spoke at the

2024 Democratic National Convention The 2024 Democratic National Convention was a United States presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating convention in which delegates of the Democratic Party (United States), United States Democratic Party voted on their party ...

, endorsing

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

for United States President and criticizing Donald Trump for calling for his execution.

Personal life

In July 2019, Wise purchased a condominium overlooking Central Park. He was the only one of the five who chose to continue to reside in New York City after his release until Yusef Salaam returned to

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

to run for a

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...

seat in 2023. Wise has a learning disability and is hard of hearing. Korey Wise has a sister named Vanity, who is a

transgender woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

. His other sister, Marci, who was also transgender, was killed while Korey was in prison.

References

External links

Korey Wise Innocence Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wise, Korey 1972 births American prisoners and detainees Living people American people wrongfully convicted of rape Activists from New York (state) Activists for African-American civil rights 20th-century African-American people Innocence Project