Today, after thirteen years a recomendation was finally made by a manhatten district attorney that the charges against the 5 men who were convicted of assaulting and raping a jogger in central park despite the lack of any physical evidence and the confession of another known rapist.

If these men are innocent(and its fairly clear to me anyway that they are) it seems hardly fair that after being imprisoned for terms ranging from seven to thirteen years they should be exonerated without even an apology as it seems will be the case. The police department continues to oppose the charges being dismissed, because they say there is no proof that the five weren't involved.
These people lives have been ruined due to the incompetence(or perhaps racism) of the police department and district attorneys of new york.
Shouldn't they be compensated for their loss?

for more information:

http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=40238&group=webcast

http://www.nyclu.org/nypd_vt_oped092702.html

http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=26297

I remember this case.... It appeared in european newspapers. At that time there were some racial riots in Miami as I can recall and it appeared that things got a bit tense in other american cities also.

The group was alledgedly on a "wilding" rampage (named after Tone Loc: Wild Thing)