The Exonerated Five, previously known as the Central Park Five, described during the Democratic National Convention how former President Donald Trump has not apologized for calling for the return of the death penalty when the then-teenagers were falsely accused of raping a jogger.
Yusef Salaam, now a member of New York’s City Council, said that Trump “never changed, and he never will.”
“45 wanted us unalived,” he said, referring to Trump as the 45th president.
“He wanted us dead. Today, we are exonerated because the actual perpetrator confessed and DNA proved it. That guy says he still stands by the original guilty verdict,” Salaam said, referring to Trump.
The men were wrongly accused as teenagers of raping and beating a white woman jogging in Central Park in 1989. The four Black men and one Latino man spent years behind bars before their convictions were vacated.
Their convictions were based on confessions that they said were coerced. Ultimately, DNA evidence linked a serial rapist to the crime, and the five convictions were vacated in 2002. New York City later paid them $41 million in a legal settlement.
When reached for comment, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “As President Trump has said previously, they admitted their guilt.”
After the five teenagers were arrested, Trump bought a full page advertisement in local newspapers calling for the return of the death penalty.
In the decades since the Exonerated Five’s convictions were overturned, Trump has refused to walk back his comments, arguing that they had admitted guilt.
Salaam said that Trump falsely thinks that hate is the “animating force in America.”
Korey Wise, another of the exonerated, recalled having time “stolen,” describing people screaming at and threatening them in the courtroom “because of Donald Trump.”
Wise highlighted Kamala Harris as someone who has “worked to make things fairer.”
“I know she will do the same as president,” he said. “Now prove that message.”
Two other members of the group stood at their sides: Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson. Antron McCray was not present.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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