Yusef Salaam, a member of the Central Park Five and now a high-profile contender for the New York City Council, is being celebrated for his win in the council primary as people take notice of his newfound social and political standing compared to a former president who once called for his death and is currently swamped in several legal battles.
Salaam, alongside four other Black and Hispanic youth, was falsely accused and wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman jogging through Central Park in 1989 when he was a teenager. Former President Donald Trump went to great lengths to incriminate them in the public eye after taking out full-page ads in multiple local newspapers to encourage the state of New York to adopt the death penalty specifically for this case.
All five boys spent between six and 13 years in prison. Salaam served nearly seven years. The accused would have spent more time behind bars if it wasn’t for the confession of Matias Reyes, who came clean and admitted his wrongdoing in 2002. DNA testing also conclusively found no link between Salaam and the other four boys and the victim, who was beaten unconscious during the attack and remembered nothing of it.
Each was exonerated of the crime and freed, leading to them subsequently being declared the Exonerated Five. They were awarded a $41 million settlement by the state of New York in 2014, even though the state admitted no wrongdoing.
In 2019, Trump stated that he wouldn’t apologize for the damning advertisements he published just 30 years prior. Now people are finding some karmic satisfaction in Salaam’s shot up the ladder after his big win for office and the former president’s descent into some stormy legal straits.
“The very definition of poetic justice,” one commenter posted.
“To…
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