Gate of the Exonerated

The Gate of the Exonerated serves as an official entrance to Central Park at the intersection of one hundred and tenth street and Fifth Avenue. This location marks the first time in the history of the park that a gate was named to honor specific individuals rather than a geographical feature or a social group. It commemorates the five teenagers known as the Central Park Five who were wrongfully convicted of a brutal assault in nineteen eighty nine. These individuals spent years in prison before their convictions were vacated in two thousand two after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The naming of this entrance acknowledges the racial injustice and the flaws in the criminal justice system that defined their experience. By designating this spot as a site of remembrance, the park board transformed a space previously known only by its coordinates into a permanent historical marker.