by Herb Boyd

NEW YORK (FinalCall.com)�If the confession of a convicted killer and rapist proves credible, it may have a significant impact on the Central Park Jogger incident in 1989, when an investment banker was beaten and raped.

According to the Manhattan district attorney�s office, an inmate at Attica prison confessed a month ago to a crime for which six teenagers were convicted, all of whom but one have served their sentences.

A senior prosecutor, James Kindler, an aide to District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, told the press that he was not at liberty to disclose the name of the confessor.

But a story in the June 12 New York Times, based on an informant familiar with the case, identified the man as Matias Reyes, 31, who is serving a life sentence for other crimes, including the murder and rape of a 24-year-old pregnant woman on Manhattan�s Upper East Side in 1991.

While early tests on DNA samples allegedly taken from Mr. Reyes do not show a conclusive match to some of the evidence found at the crime scene, some of the man�s genetic material is consistent with some of the evidence, the informant close to the case stated.

"I am not surprised by any of this,�� said Sharonne Salaam, the mother of Yusef Salaam, one of the young men convicted of the crime. "All along, we maintained their innocence and this is one step toward their vindication, even if the district attorney and the police are unable to admit their culpability in all this.��

Yusef Salaam, now 28, was 15 when he was convicted and served seven years in prison, said he was elated that someone had come forward. "I can�t believe it,�� he said."When I heard it, I thought I was dreaming.��

Except for Kharey Wise, now 29, all the others convicted of the crime�Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray and Steven Lopez�have served their time. Mr. Wise is slated for a parole hearing later this year. "We are going to visit him today and give him the good news,�� Sharonne Salaam said.

Mr. Lopez never admitted his involvement in the assault, but pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in the mugging of another jogger, according to his lawyer, Jesse Berman. He served his 1 1/2- to 4 1/2-year sentence in Edgecombe Correctional Facility in Manhattan, and was released in August 1993.

In the New York Times story, Mr. Berman said he always had some reservations about the trial�s proceedings and the confessions. As for Mr. Reyes� confession, he wanted it understood that he gave the Times three possibilities. "I told them that one possibility is that they�re (the five convicted) are guilty, as well as Reyes; that Reyes is off the wall; or that he was solely responsible.��

Whatever the outcome of the Reyes� confession, it will not erase the condemnation, stigmatization and the subsequent terrible results of the "wilding�� charges leveled against the teenagers, said activist Elombe Brath, who, like Amsterdam News former publisher Bill Tatum, closely monitored the trials. "They all lived near me in the Schomburg complex, and I knew them and felt they were innocent of all the charges,�� Mr. Brath said.

"The wilding assertions, the years they spent incarcerated and the cloud of Megan�s Law that shrouds them are some of the things that will be with them the rest of their lives," he said. New York media gave extensive coverage to the so-called incident, calling it a "wilding," or orgy of violence.

During the trial, there were several videotapes of Kharey Wise confessing to the crime, and though they provided glaring contradictions, all were admitted as evidence. There was all sort of discrepancy about Yusef Salaam�s age�it was finally determined that he was 15 and not 16 years old.

"Yusef never confessed to anything,�� his mother contended. "It was all part of a conspiracy, and that�s why the police are still unable to come clean. They tested their blood, hair and couldn�t find that they matched. And no one ever identified them as the culprits."

It remains unclear why Mr. Reyes chose this time to admit his role in the crime. "He confessed because it was his time to do so,�� said Ms. Salaam, who founded People United for Children, which deals with children caught in the throes of the foster care system. "He may have AIDS or some other fatal disease and felt a need to unload this burden. Who knows? What we do know is that our children have been unfairly convicted, and we feel vindicated by these recent developments," she said.

Meanwhile, the woman assaulted in Central Park will soon be coming forth to identify herself.

The Scribner arm of Simon & Schuster publishers won the auction for the life story of the one-time Salomon Brothers investment banker, now 41, and living in Connecticut. At the time of the attack, there was some doubt if she would recover or even come out of a coma. She lost nearly 75 percent of her blood.

The book was originally going to be out in the fall of 2003, but Scribner is now aiming for a publication date sometime in the spring. "She is going to identify herself and tell her story,�� confirmed a Scribner spokeswoman.