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Since “When They See Us” — a miniseries about the wrongful convictions of five black and Latino youth in New York — premiered on Netflix at the end of May, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Korey Wise Innocence Project has received more than $11,000 in donations.
That’s 10 times as much money as had been contributed over the first five months of 2019 to the organization that offers pro-bono legal assistance to people believed to have been wrongfully convicted.
Korey Wise, one of the so-called Central Park Five portrayed in the series, is tied to the Boulder campus after donating $190,000 to the project in 2015, hoping to give back to a program.
The Netflix series has reinvigorated interest in the case stemming from the 1989 assault and rape of a jogger in New York City’s Central Park. The ensuing criminal case spotlighted racial injustice in the legal system and now has compelled viewers to reach for their wallets and give to groups standing up for the wrongfully convicted.
Since the Ava DuVernay-directed series debuted May 31, CU’s Korey Wise Innocence Project has received 152 donations amounting to $11,256. From January to the show’s launch, the projec