exonerated five
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Kevin Winter / Getty
The Exonerated Five have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump for defamation related to his comments about them during the September presidential debate.
The Exonerated Five, formerly known as the Central Park Five, have filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump for defamation of character. The filing, made by Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown, and Korey Wise, points to his remarks made about them and their case in the Sept. 10 presidential debate against Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Specifically, the filing addresses Trump’s false claim that the men “killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false. “Plaintiffs never pled guilty to any crime and were subsequently cleared of all wrongdoing. Further, the victims of the Central Park assaults were not killed.” The 1989 case began when all five, who were teenagers at the time, were arrested and convicted of the rape of a woman jogger in Central Park. Trump took out a full-page ad in May of that year demanding the city send a message and “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE!” The five would have their convictions vacated in 2002 after police DNA testing found another prisoner had committed the rape, with New York City paying them $41 million in damages.
The lawsuit also includes other statements Trump has made about the case, including a 2013 tweet blasting the Ken Burns documentary on the case as a “one-sided piece of garbage that didn’t explain the horrific [sic] crimes of these young men while in park [sic].” It also details an interaction between Yusuf Salaam, now a New York City Councilman, and Trump after the debate in the spin room, where Trump rebuffed an attempt to dialogue about his remarks. Salaam and other members of the Exonerated Five have been campaigning for Vice President Harris and were onstage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with Reverend Al Sharpton in August.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the lawsuit in a statement, writing: “This is just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists, in an attempt to distract the American people from Kamala Harris’ dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign.” Defamation lawsuits have been a thorn in Trump’s side – in January, a jury awarded columnist E. Jean Carroll $88.3 million for social media attacks against her, followed by a $5 million judgment in May after he was found liable for sexual abuse.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Variety / Getty
of the Exonerated Five has been declared the winner of his New York City Council election, capping off a surging campaign.
On Wednesday (July 5th), the city’s Board of Elections released the results of its completed ranked-choice voting tally which began after general voting ended last Tuesday. The tally showed that Salaam won 64 percent of the vote, an overwhelming amount compared to the 36 percent of the vote for the veteran state assembly member Inez Dickens. Another state assembly member, Al Taylor, was eliminated in the third round of the voting count.
“This is a victory for justice, dignity, and decency for the Harlem community we love,” Mr. Salaam said in a statement after the results were posted. “It’s a victory in support of not turning our backs on those in need, for saying we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and for saying the only way for all of us to thrive is to believe in the promise we all have.”
Salaam’s win assures him of a seat on the City Council, replacing incumbent Kristin Richardson Jordan. The politician, whose democratic socialist policies brought her high scrutiny, dropped out in mid-May. Dickens, who represented the district for years before taking an assembly seat, had received far more institutional support for her campaign, even getting the only endorsement in the primary election season from Mayor Eric Adams.
The 49-year-old New York native spoke out about his experience being one of five Black and Brown teens wrongly convicted in the assault and rape of a woman jogger in Central Park in 1989. The case grabbed national attention, with future former President Donald Trump excoriating the teens asking for the death penalty to be given to the teens. Salaam would be released in 1997 and the Exonerated Five would be cleared of wrongdoing in 2002 after DNA tests confirmed another man was the assailant.
Salaam is expected to pursue moderate agenda plans during his time in office, focusing on issues of the lack of social services and affordable housing. “The problem that we are experiencing in Harlem right now is that we are being pushed out,” Mr. Salaam said to the New York Times. “They’re saying that we’re leaving, but the truth of the matter is that we are being priced out and therefore we are being pushed out.”
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Dave Kotinsky / Getty
Yusef Salaam, a member of the Exonerated Five, won his primary election to the New York City Council in a strong fashion.
As the results of the Democratic primary for the City Council’s 9th District came in at 11 P.M. on Tuesday night (June 27th), the 49-year-old author and justice activist was leading state Assembly members Inez Dickens and Al Taylor with more than 50% of the vote. Dickens and Taylor netted 25% and 15% of that vote, respectively. Kristin Richardson Jordan, the incumbent who dropped out of the race unexpectedly but was still on the ballot, came in last but earned 10% of the vote.
Salaam gathered with his supporters at Harlem Tavern, entering to raucous applause. In a speech he gave to the crowd which was covered by Jeff Coltin of City & State NY, he said: “What has happened on this campaign has restored my faith in knowing that I was born for this. I am not a seasoned politician. So therefore this was not politics as usual.”
In being one of the five Black and brown teens – the others being Antron McCay, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise – falsely accused and convicted of assaulting and raping Trisha Melli in 1989, Salaam’s experience served as fuel for his life as a justice advocate after he and the others were exonerated after another man confessed to the crime. That story drew many in the Harlem district to back his campaign. The win guarantees that Salaam will serve on the City Council for two two-year terms, as there is no Republican candidate slated for the district.
He referenced that situation and the 1989 newspaper advertisement by Donald Trump calling for the death penalty in their case, although he deigned to call out the former president by name. “This campaign has been about those who have been counted out, those who have been forgotten,” Salaam said in his speech. “I am here because, Harlem, you believed in me.”
There was the possibility of Salaam potentially going through a second round of counting votes due to New York’s ranked-choice voting system, but the lead that he holds makes it mathematically impossible for Dickens and Taylor to overcome. The 73-year-old Dickens, who scored the only endorsement by Mayor Eric Adams in any City Council election this primary, reportedly called Salaam to concede later that evening.
HipHopWired Radio
Our staff has picked their favorite stations, take a listen…
-
Pages