San Antonio 4

Four women spent 15 years in prison after being falsely convicted for sexually assaulting two girls. Elizabeth Rameriez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez, are also known as the ‘San Antonio 4’, they were accused of raping Elizabeth’s two nieces. They also have a documentary, “Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four”.

One niece later went to recant her testimony because family members had told her to lie because they disproved of her aunt’s sexuality. The 4 had recently came out as lesbian, and during the time of the accusation (1990s), it was something that was not as accepted as it is today in 2019.

The Innocence Project of Texas, filed for post conviction relief in 2013 because key pieces of evidence raised doubts about their conviction, the 4 women were released while the court considered their request. All 4 women were exonerated in November of 2016 and issued $80,000 each from the state for every year they were imprisoned.

Clearly this was similar to the ‘Central Park 5’ who we learned about earlier in the semester. The “San Antonio 4” and the “Central Park 5” are just some of many wrongful convictions. Both happened about the same time, (Central Park 5, 1989) (San Antonio 4, (1994) and individuals beliefs on sexuality and race differed quite a bit more back then and as we learned from the Central Park 5 that many of the members of the justice system were racist and in the case of the four women, this was an issue of their sexuality. Elizabeth’s family members were not open or accepting to her sexuality, as well as others back then. Now, LGBTQ rights have improved slightly, just like with race, there are still people are being discriminated against because of their sexuality. However, just because it happened years ago when the justice system wasn't at its best (not saying that its at its best right now but), that should not be an excuse to wrongfully convict these women and imprison them for something they did not do. As these issues have somewhat improved over the years, there will still be wrongful convictions to come in the future. As we have learned in class, race will always be prevalent in our society, as well as sexuality, police brutality, etc, we can just hope that the justice system can continue to change for the better.