Korey Wise (born July 26, 1972) is an activist and public figure who travels around the United States advocating for criminal justice reform and sharing his own incredible story of false convictions, unjust incarceration, and, finally, full vindication. Wise spent approximately 14 years incarcerated for crimes he did not commit and maintained his innocence from 1989 up until he was finally exonerated in 2002.

A native New Yorker from Harlem, Wise along with the four other men who were falsely convicted were commonly referred to as “The Central Park Five.” Their story was recently dramatized and released as a 4-episode miniseries on Netflix entitled “When They See Us.” The hit series has received international acclaim and accolades, winning two Emmy Awards after 16 nominations in 2019; Jharrel Jerome won the 2019 Emmy for Lead Actor in a Limited Series/Movie for his portrayal of Wise.

Korey Wise’s story is especially troubling and emotional as he was the oldest at 16 and the only member of the five to serve all of his time in the adult prison system. Korey was not a suspect in any of the crimes initially, and accompanied his friend to the police station of his own free will out of loyalty. Once there, however, detectives decided to interrogate him as well and connected him to the rape of a woman jogging in the park that night, despite his name not originally being on the list of suspects.

In 2015, he donated $190,000 to the University of Colorado Law School Innocence Project, which was renamed the Korey Wise Innocence Project.