Central Park Five reach $41M settlement with New York City

A federal judge has signed off on New York City's $41 million US settlement with the five men who were wrongly convicted in the vicious 1989 rape and beating of a Central Park jogger.

Mayor Bill de Blasio called the settlement approved Friday an "act of justice" that's "long overdue."

The five black and Hispanic defendants were convicted as teenagers in the attack on a white woman.

They served six to 13 years in prison before their convictions were thrown out in 2002 because of evidence connecting someone else to the attack.

The victim was found with more than 75 per cent of her blood drained from her body and her skull smashed. She was in a coma for 12 days, suffered permanent damage and remembers nothing about the attack.