Thirty-five years after they were rushed through aggressive interrogations at a NYC police precinct and ultimately imprisoned, four members of the Exonerated Five – once known as the Central Park Five – stood before the Democratic National Convention Thursday and declared a new day.
They reminded the audience that Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, wrongly believed they were guilty of assaulting a woman jogger in Central Park, even after DNA evidence proved them innocent. A Kamala Harris presidency would usher in a new era of fairness, they said.
“He spent $85,000 on a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for our execution,” exoneree Korey Wise told the audience at the United Center. “We served a total of 41 years in prison.”
The case was key in the history of human rights because it served as a blatant example of how law enforcement singles out young Black males, and how the justice system works against Black males.
Out of all of the members of the Exonerated Five, Wise spent the longest time incarcerated. When he was behind bars, he met the man who was the real criminal and convinced him to step forward.
“Vice President Harris has worked to make things fairer,” Wise said. “I know she will do the same as president.:
Exoneree Yusef Salaam, now a Democratic New York City councilman representing Harlem, echoed Wise’s warnings about Trump, the country’s 45th president.
“Forty five wanted us unalive — he wanted us dead,” Salaam said. “Today we are exonerated because the actual perpetrator confessed and DNA proved it. That guy says he still stands by the original guilty verdict. He dismisses the scientific evidence rather than admit he was wrong.”
Salaam added, “He has never changed and he never will.”
The councilman who has emerged as the most outspoken of the exonerated group evoked memories of the late Martin Luther King when he relayed that he’d spent “seven long years” behind bars.
“Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last,” Salaam said, the crowd shouting the same words. “God bless you and God bless the United States of America.”
