NEW YORK, NEW YORK – With the new Netflix Miniseries, When They See Us, beginning it’s run, one of our own exceptional attorneys – Paul Callan – is scheduled to attend the premiere at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Ava DuVernay’s Netflix mini-miniseries centers on the story of “The Central Park Five,” also chronicled in the Ken Burns 2012 PBS Documentary of the same title, about the racially-charged wrongful conviction and imprisonment of the five young men originally charged with the brutal beating and rape of Trish Meli, the so-called “Central Park Jogger,” on the night of April 19, 1989.
Former Brooklyn prosecutor and current Edelman & Edelman attorney Paul Callan was given the honor of attending the premiere because of the important role he played in bringing about legal justice in the aftermath of the original convictions. He represented the two Manhattan assistant district attorneys whose dogged reinvestigation of the Five’s criminal convictions would ultimately lead to their exoneration. These attorneys were arguably the most important witnesses in the wrongful conviction civil litigation which finally resulted in a record-setting $41 million settlement with the City of New York in 2014.
Ironically the original Manhattan prosecutor who supervised the prosecution of the Central Park Five will be played by Felicity Huffman, now under indictment and facing criminal charges herself in the College Admissions scandal which recently dominated headlines across the country.
At Edelman & Edelman, we are proud of attorney Paul Callan’s illustrious career as a New York attorney.
UPDATE 05-21-19 – Here are some photographs from the world premiere of When They See Us, the Netflix docudrama about the wrongful conviction and exoneration of the Central Park Five. These photos were taken at the conclusion of the film and are of the Central Park Five and the actors who play them. They received a standing ovation.
The Apollo Theater was packed. Oprah Winfrey and many others were in attendance. Also present was the successful Edelman and Edelman wrongful conviction client, Jonathan Fleming.