34 Years Later The “Exonerated 5” Responds To Trump’s Call For Their Execution

On April 19, 1989, after a series of attacks and thefts in Manhattan’s Central Park, 29 year old Patricia Melli was brutally raped and beaten. Her injuries were so severe that police believed she would die and treated the case as a murder investigation. It would take many months, but Melli recovered.

Five young black men, dubbed “The Central Park Five,” were quickly accused of raping the white woman. Well before their trial, Donald Trump contaminated the New York jury pool by taking out a full page ad in the NY Times effectively calling for their execution. The article was entitled:

Trump stated, “I want to hate these murderers and I always will.” Trump declared that, “Criminals must be told that THEIR CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS.”

Trump didn’t get his death sentence. The Central Park Five were convicted and given long prison sentences. There was just one little problem.

They were innocent. Which means the person who really did these horrible things to Patricia Melli remained free to commit more crimes. His name is Matias Reyes and he went on that summer to rape four more women, one of whom he murdered. He was interrupted while robbing a fifth woman, at last bringing his spree of violence against women to an end.

Police had evidence to connect Reyes to the Melli assault, evidence that would have exonerated the Central Park Five. Melli raped another woman earlier that day in the Park and police had his DNA from that. However, they did not compare it to the DNA found in Melli’s assault because they were treating her assault as a homicide rather than a rape, as if it could not be both.

In 2002, while in jail for those later offenses, Reyes confessed to being the one who assaulted Melli. He said he acted alone and intended to burglarize Melli’s apartment later. Further, he provided details of the attack consistent with evidence at the scene, something the Central Park Five never did. Police finally compared his DNA to that found on Melli and it was a match. Reyes’ confession was well after New York’s Statute of Limitations had passed and he could not be charged with the offense. Justice to Patricia Melli for what happened to her was forever lost.

However, for the Central Park Five, to the extent justice can ever be provided to innocent people jailed for over ten years, it was done. They were released and their convictions vacated. The City of New York paid them $41 million in settlement of their lawsuit.

We now turn back to Trump. When they were released in 2002, now known as “The Exonerated Five,” their attorney stated: “I think Donald Trump at the very least owes a real apology to this community and to the young men and their families.”

Even after all this, that apology would never come. Instead, in a defiance of facts and evidence serving as a prelude to his election denials, Trump doubled down and argued that the exoneration was wrong. In response to a 2013 documentary on their case Trump described it as “a one-sided piece of garbage.” How many sides of this did Trump look at?

Of course, now the shoe is on the other foot. It is Trump indicted for crimes in New York. At least one of the Central Park Five has responded in a manner as pointed as it is dignified. On the day of Trump’s indictment, Yusef Salaam (who is now running for NY City Council) issued a one word statement: “Karma.”

Today Salaam went further and took out his own counter to that one page in the New York Times that Trump did 34 years ago. It’s similarly styled headline read:

You should really read it. The writing is beautiful. Towards the end he points to Trump’s current threats of violence against the prosecutor and the judge in the case and reminds Trump that his advertisement argued the Central Park Five should be denied their “civil liberties.” Today Salaam responded:

“Now that you have been indicted and are facing criminal charges, I do not resort to hatred, bias or racism — as you once did. 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.

“Rather I am putting my faith in the judicial system to seek out the truth. I hope you exercise your civil liberties to the fullest, and that you get what the Exonerated 5 did not get — a presumption 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”