Yusef Salaam
The “Central Park Five” —a group of five Black and Latino men who were wrongly convicted of raping a white jogger in New York City in 1989—are also slated to speak during the fourth night, urging voters not to support President Donald Trump, who at the time took out full-page newspaper ads against them as their – since-vacated – convictions made headlines.
Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson are expected to give brief remarks at the DNC this evening after Rev.
Trump continued to double down on his stance, while five young men paid the ultimate price for Sharpton’s careless words.
Before the trial even began, Trump spent $85k on full-page newspaper ads throughout New York City opposing bail for The Central Park Five—five teenage boys all arrested and coerced into confessions by police after The Manhattan DA’s office felt embattled in solving a case involving attack on a jogger that occurred some years before.
Trump, a powerful New York City business magnate at the time, wrote in one of them these muggers and murderers… should be forced to suffer and when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.
Trump sparked backlash for defending the ads, and saying he did not believe there any “inciteful” aspects of his messaging: “Believe it or not I don’t see them as being violent.”
While the exonerated Central Park 5 reached a $41 million settlement with New York City in 2014, Trump continued to call that case a “disgrace.”
By 2019, Trump — who stood by his comments about the group from a speech in 1989 and said at the White House that same year You have people on both sides of that, according to The New York Times.
The Central Park Five spoke directly to Trump in their speech, evoking the hell they suffered through after being falsely convicted of raping a white woman (whom began scanning death threats from massachusetts afterwards), and blaming him for riling up threatening mobs during that time.
A speech was then given by Salaam that read, “45 (Trump) wanted us unalive; he wanted us dead”, speaking on behalf of the five men who were lampooned with Trump’s words when they spent a total 41 years incarcerated.
Salaam also called out Trump for denying the evidence and confession that set these men free.
Surprising Fact
Last year, Yusef Salaam of the Central Park Five won a seat on Bronx city council. Salaam has tweeted a letter in the style of Trump’s 1989 ads dating back to at least last year, weighing in on his comments and accusing him of being arrested for “business fraud” before he was elected president. Trump was found guilty of the charges afterwards.
Key Background
Members of the group have maintained that they were manipulated into admitting responsibility for beating and raping a jogger named Trisha Meili (who became known widely as “the Central Park Jogger”) when questioned by police after their apprehension. In 1990 all five of the group members pleaded not guilty during their trials.
Reyes, a convicted murderer serving time in prison, confessed to raping the jogger and his DNA matched evidence recovered from her body; as a result of Reyes’ confession that he alone had committed the rape attacked on April 19, Matias re-opened investigation regarding other individuals involved.
The five men served between five and 13 years before convictions were overturned based upon Reyes’s public recounting exposing them innocent Bytes.
His self-incrimination was validated through DNA analysis. The names and addresses of the five teenagers were published around that time, with Salaam saying he received eight death threats in one day after Trump’s ads were released.
Trump’s ads likely influenced the case, said Michael Warren, who represented three of the Central Park Five in court.