This combination photo shows, clockwise from top left, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Korey Wise and Kevin Richardson, known as the Central Park Five.
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During the presidential debate on Tuesday evening, former President Donald Trump again defended his actions in New York in the late 1980s in connection with the case of the Central Park Five (also known as the “Exonerated Five”).
After the brutal attack on a New York jogger in Central Park in 1989, Trump famously took out full-page ads in the city’s major newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty for those responsible – further fueling racial tensions in the city.
Five black and Hispanic teenagers were falsely accused and spent years in prison before being exonerated by DNA analysis and the confession of a convicted rapist and murderer.
But on Tuesday night, Trump said the five black and Latino teenagers falsely accused of the crime must have “seriously injured, ultimately killed, a human being” at the time. The victim in the case is still alive but is battling the ongoing health effects of the attack.
It was not the first time in recent years that Trump falsely claimed the men were responsible for the attack.
Read on to learn more about the case that is once again making headlines.
What happened in April 1989?
In 1989, 28-year-old investment banker Trisha Meili was jogging in Central Park when she was brutally beaten and raped. After the brutal attack, Meili fell into a coma for almost two weeks and could not remember the attack.
New York City was struggling with a high rate of violent crime at the time, and the media covered the case extensively. On the same night that Meili was attacked, witnesses told the media and police that groups of teenagers were attacking, robbing, and beating passersby and other joggers.
Police brought in a group of black and Hispanic teenagers – Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam – and subjected them to intense questioning.
“The boys were dubbed the ‘wolf pack’ and quickly became symbols of the criminal menace that white New Yorkers believed had engulfed their city,” Poynter told the media at the time.
Trump jumped on the media circus of the day and bought his full-page ad in the New York Times and other major city newspapers.
What happened after her arrest?
McCray, Richardson, Santana, Wise and Salaam broke down after hours of interrogation and made videotaped confessions – statements the boys eventually retracted, saying they had been coerced into their crimes.
“When we were arrested, the police denied us food, drink and sleep for more than 24 hours,” Salaam wrote in the WashingtonPost in 2016. “We made false confessions under duress.”
The five pleaded not guilty but were arrested and served several years in prison.
Salaam wrote in this 2016 article: “Although we were innocent, we spent our formative years in prison and were branded as rapists.”
This case is often used by juvenile justice experts as an example of the vulnerability of children and young people who come into contact with the criminal justice system. Their brains are not yet fully developed and research shows that young people are more likely than adults to confess to a crime they did not commit.
The case has also been repeatedly cited as evidence that the criminal justice system is biased against people of color.
It was not until 2002 that the five men were exonerated after convicted rapist and murderer Matias Reyes confessed to the crime. Reyes’ DNA matched the sample found on Meili.
After their convictions were overturned, the five men received millions of dollars in compensation from the City of New York.
The Central Park Five meet Reverend Al Sharpton during the Democratic National Convention last month in Chicago.
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Trump has repeatedly held on to the false belief that the men were guilty
Trump has never apologized for publishing the full-page ad (which did not explicitly name the five men) and, decades later, continues to claim they were responsible for the attack.
Salaam wrote in his article that when Trump was asked about the case during the 2016 presidential campaign, he replied, “They admitted their guilt.” And in a statement to CNN at the time, Trump also said, “The police who conducted the original investigation said they were guilty. The fact that this case was settled despite so much evidence against them is outrageous.”
Salaam said Trump’s claims are damaging and causing fear and stress.
“In some ways, I feel like I’m back on trial. I know what it means to be a young black man without a voice – like Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, who were killed and then crucified in the press. Even though the Central Park Five were found innocent by a court of law, we are still guilty in the eyes of many,” Salaam wrote. “That brings a certain kind of stress.”
Three years later, in 2019, Trump said again: “There are people on both sides. They have admitted their guilt,” the New York Times reported. “If you look at the views of some prosecutors, they believe the city should never have settled this case – so let’s leave it at that.”
When asked about this during the debate, Trump falsely said that the Central Park Five must have “seriously injured, ultimately killed, someone.”
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Salaam, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention along with three other members of the Exonerated Five and is now a New York City councilman, was in the spin room after the debate, where he came face-to-face with Trump. The former president did not appear to know who Salaam was when asked by reporters if he would apologize.
The Independent reported on the incident and said Trump “grinned and pointed at him and joked, ‘That’s good, you’re on my side!'”
According to the source, Salaam seemed surprised – he was in the room supporting Vice President Kamala Harris – and said, “No, no, I’m not on your side!” before Trump walked away.
