Kevin D. Richardson, who was wrongfully charged and convicted with four other Black and Latino teenagers in the 1989 Central Park jogger case, said the system failed him and many others.

"And it's my due diligence to not let this happen again," he told more than 300 attendees during the New Jersey State Bar Association's virtual Symposium on Race and the Law earlier this month.

Richardson said he and "his brothers," as he refers to the other four men, have indelible scars from the experience.

"It's something you can never shake off," he said.

"Are we angry? Yes, we have the right to be angry, rightfully so. But I believe bitterness will take you to the grave even faster," said Richardson, who has dedicated his life to criminal justice reform.

In a conversation with criminal defense and human rights attorney Raymond M. Brown, Richardson talked about the events of 30 years ago, when he was 14.

Brown noted many wonder how someone who didn't commit a crime could walk or be taken to a police ­station, and several hours later wind up confessing.

Richardson explained it's easy for others to say they would never confess, but they don't understand the events and forces that compelled a naïve kid who didn't understand what was happening to him to confess.

"I literally went from playing basketball on my street corner in Harlem to winding up in the Central Park precinct that night. And my only concern that night was trying to get home before curfew," he said.

During his questioning at the precinct, he heard his mother's voice in the background. "So I thought: hope. Oh, I'm going to go home. As the hours went by, my mother's voice faded away. She was no longer there."

Richardson was read his Miranda rights but waived them since he never had a run-in with the law and had never heard of Miranda rights.

"It really went right past my head," he said. "They kind of slid that in there, 'You have the right to remain silent…" And by that time I was just so tired and so bewildered that I was just listening."

Richardson spoke of the racial tension simmering in New York City at the time, and of his unfair treatment in the media, which depicted the teens as members of gangs and "wolf packs" out for a night of "wilding." The media and public assumed their guilt, he said.

Four of the five, including Richardson, confessed. Sentenced to five-to-10 years, he was released from a youth correctional facility after serving seven. All of the men were eventually exonerated in 2002, after Matias Reyes, a convicted murderer and serial rapist, confessed to the crime and said he acted alone. Reyes' DNA was subsequently matched to genetic material that was recovered from the scene.

Now 45, Richardson lives in New Jersey with his wife and two ­daughters. He speaks around the country about being part of the Exonerated Five, and works with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to exonerating individuals who are wrongly ­convicted. And he is involved in efforts to end police interrogation of minors without the presence of an adult representative.

When asked what guidance he could give to the attendees, many of whom have recently been awakened to the problem of systemic racism as a result of the killing of George Floyd, Richardson said: "I think it takes a village to make this change. And, of course, it's about people of color, but it will take everyone to come together. Go to your community and make that change, be present, keep fighting."