There was no substantive physical evidence connecting the five teenagers to the rape scene, but each of the five was convicted in 1990 of assault and other charges by juries. This fact was testified to by an FBI witness in the first of two trials. Each of the suspects' DNA was excluded from matching the DNA from two semen samples found in and close to the victim, which both belonged to the same unidentified man. Within weeks, they each withdrew these confessions, pleaded not guilty, and refused plea deals on the rape and assault charges of the female jogger. In some cases questioning had proceeded for hours without parents or counsel present for any of the suspects. Prosecution of the five defendants in the rape case was based primarily on confessions which they had made during police interrogations.
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