Exonerated ‘Central Park Five’ member Yusef Salaam wins New York City Council seat decades after he was falsely accused of rape at age 15: ‘This victory represents hope’

• Salaam won over 50 percent of the ballot in the city council’s 9th District Democratic Primary in June and ran unopposed in the general
• In a statement, Salaam thanked his fellow members of the now ‘Exonerated Five’ and sent out what he deemed a message of hope for his district 
• Salaam released multiple statements mocking former President Donald Trump for an ad he put out calling to re-introduce the death penalty over the case 

Exonerated ‘Central Park Five’ member Yusef Salaam officially won a seat on the New York City Council Tuesday, decades after he was falsely accused of rape at the age of 15. 

Salaam defeated multiple candidates – including the incumbent and a candidate who had been endorsed by Mayor Eric Adams – to get over 50 percent of the ballot in the city council’s 9th District Democratic Primary in June.

On Tuesday night, he ran uncontested to win the seat, which is located in central Harlem.

In a statement, Salaam thanked his fellow members of the now ‘Exonerated Five’ and sent out what he deemed a message of hope for his district.  

‘In my darkest moments, when seemingly the world was against the so-called Central Park Five, I never gave up hope – and tonight, this victory represents hope for our Harlem community,’ he said. 

Exonerated ‘Central Park Five’ member Yusef Salaam (pictured right) officially won a seat on the New York City Council Tuesday, decades after he was falsely accused of rape at the age of 15

‘To my four brothers who went through that vilification and then exoneration, this win is for those scared kids decades ago who were railroaded through the criminal injustice system that wanted us dead. We survived because we knew we were right, and eventually, the world did, too.’

He also promised to take his district out of ‘neutral’ and ‘maximize the potential that made us kings and queens’ 

‘My pledge to the community is that you will always see me, be able to talk to me, and reach me – because I am from these streets. This community was there for me when nobody else was, and now it is the honor of a lifetime to give back,’ he said. 

Salaam’s campaign has won publicity after releasing multiple statements mocking former President Donald Trump for an ad he put out in 1989 calling on the state to re-introduce the death penalty over the case, timed specifically to the former president’s indictments. 

In 1989, Salaam, along with four other then teenagers, were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman. After they had spent years in prison, a serial rapist confessed to the crime. 

Salaam was arrested along with Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise and accused of attacking a woman running in Central Park.

The crime dominated headlines in the city, inflaming racial tensions as police rounded up Black and Latino men and boys for interrogation. 

Former President Trump, then just a brash real estate executive in the city, took out large ads in newspapers that implored New York to bring back the death penalty.

Salaam defeated multiple candidates – including the incumbent and a candidate who had been endorsed by Mayor Eric Adams – to get over 50 percent of the ballot in the city council’s 9th District Democratic Primary in June

On Tuesday night, Salaam ran uncontested to win the seat, which is located in central Harlem

Salaam arriving at New York State Supreme Court at the age of 16

The teens convicted in the attack served between five and 12 years in prison before the case was reexamined.

A serial rapist and murderer was eventually linked to the crime through DNA evidence and a confession. The convictions of the Central Park Five were vacated in 2002 and they received a combined $41 million settlement from the city.

Salaam campaigned on easing poverty and combatting gentrification in Harlem. He often mentioned his conviction and imprisonment on the trail – his place as a symbol of injustice helping to animate the overwhelmingly Black district and propel him to victory.

‘I am really the ambassador for everyone´s pain,’ he said. ‘In many ways, I went through that for our people so I can now lead them.’

Speaking at a primary victory party in Harlem back in June, Salaam said: ‘There were large ads bought in 1989. A whisper for the state to kill us. A whisper, in fact, into the darkest enclaves of society for them to do to us what they had done to Emmitt Till.’ 

Trump reportedly spent $85,000 to run full page ads against the Central Park Five – now known as the Exonerated Five – in a number of New York newspapers.

In his 1989 ad, Trump used his now-synonymous all-caps as he titled the page: ‘BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE’. 

‘I want to hate these murderers and I always will,’ he continued in the piece. ‘I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them.’ 

In a statement, Salaam thanked his fellow members of the now ‘Exonerated Five’ and sent out what he deemed a message of hope for his district

Salaam’s campaign has gotten publicity from releasing multiple statements mocking Trump for the ad he put out in 1989 calling on the state to re-introduce the death penalty over the case, timed specifically to the former president’s indictments

In a scathing 1989 full page ad, Donald Trump called for the death penalty to be reintroduced in New York in response to the Central Park Five case

Following Trump’s arrest in April, Salaam mimicked Trump’s letter as he mocked him for his ‘disastrous presidency’ 

In his response to Trump’s arrest in April, Salaam said: ‘Now, after several decades and an unfortunate and disastrous presidency, we all know exactly who Donald J. Trump is – a man who seeks to deny justice and fairness for others, while claiming only innocence for himself.’ 

His campaign featured an ad that he took out using the same typeface and capital letters: ‘BRING BACK JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS! BUILD A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR CENTRAL HARLEM!’ 

Salaam referenced his time in prison immediately in his victory speech.  

‘Started from the bottom, now we’re here,’ he said to rapturous cheers. ‘This campaign has been about those who have been counted out. This campaign has been about those who have been forgotten.’ 

Salaam also campaigned on left wing goals such as housing being a human right, economic justice, justice and safety reform and environmental justice. 

Following his scathing rebuke of Trump’s arrest, Salaam used the rest of his ad to argue that many of the issues that led to his wrongful arrest 30 years ago remain today. 

‘I have lived through a form of trauma that many of us experience in some way every day throughout our country,’ he said. 

‘My past is an example of systemic oppression by the injustice system.

In this August 11, 1990 file photo, Yusef Salaam enters State Supreme Court in Manhattan with his mother, Sharonne Salaam, on the third day of deliberations in the Central Park jogger trial

Yusef Salaam, back right, pictured leaving court in June, 1990

The members of the Central Park Five speak at the 2019 BET Awards. Pictured, left to right: Korey Wise, Raymond Sanatana Jr, Yusef Saleem, Antron McCray, and Kevin Richardson

Salaam campaigned on left wing goals such as housing being a human right, economic justice, justice and safety reform and environmental justice

‘But the problems our community faced when my name was slashed across the newspapers a generation ago – inadequate housing, underfunded schools, public safety concerns, and a lack of good jobs – became worse during Donald Trump’s time in office.’ 

Salaam said that he is running for office himself to ‘change that’, as he condemned Trump’s actions as president, such as during the January 6 riot, as ‘an attack on our safety’. 

‘Now that you have been indicted and are facing criminal charges, I do not resort to hatred, bias or racism – as you once did,’ he added. 

‘Even though thirty-four years ago you effectively called for my death and the death of four other innocent children, I wish you no harm.’

Salaam said he was putting his ‘faith in the judicial system’ to find the truth, and after hitting out at Trump for ‘seeking to obliterate’ civil liberties, he maintained hope that ‘you get what the Exonerated Five did not get – a presumption of innocence and a fair trial’. 

‘And if the charges are proven and you are found guilty, I hope that you endure whatever penalties are imposed with the same strength and dignity that the Exonerated Five showed as we served our punishment for a crime we did not commit.’

On Tuesday night, Salaam clearly referenced his time in prison and the public calls for his execution as he come out of it a likely elected official.

‘They made us into pariahs but look at our life, my whole life is being restored,’ he said.

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