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Oprah: What do you feel toward those boys today, now that they're all out of jail?

Central Park Jogger: I sincerely hope they've turned their lives around. I think they were troubled boys.

Oprah: So at no time have you ever been resentful?

Central Park Jogger: I wasn't resentful of the boys, but I did want them to admit they had made a mistake.

Oprah: Did you want an apology?

Central Park Jogger: Yes, a sincere apology. It would have made me feel better to know they realized what they had done was wrong.

Oprah: Did you want them to apologize to you directly, or would it have been enough to know they felt remorse in their heart?

Central Park Jogger: At the time I wanted a personal apology.

Oprah: Did you ever want to ask them why you were the person they chose?

Central Park Jogger: No. I just felt I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. If it hadn't been me, it would have been someone else.

Oprah: But did you ever wonder, "How could they have done that to me?"

Central Park Jogger: I have wondered that.

Oprah: You need to get mad! You're way too balanced.

Central Park Jogger: But I do get angry. And I never really saw how badly I'd been hurt, when I was at my worst.

Oprah: You didn't see the photographs taken as evidence?

Central Park Jogger: No, though there have been times when I've wanted to see them because it's unusual to have no memory of an important point in my life. When I was with the prosecutor, I even asked her, "Do you have the photos?" I was wondering if I wanted to see them. But then I decided I didn't. I'm not denying what happened. I have to live with the consequences of it every day. But I thought, "You know what? I don't need to see them."

Oprah: If I were you, I'd want to see them.

Central Park Jogger: Really?

Oprah: In so many ways that would be a declaration of how far you've come.

Central Park Jogger: I already know how far I've come. And maybe it's just that I don't want to see how bad it was.

PAGE 6 of 11
From the April 2002 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
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