Exonerated ‘Central Park Five’ member, Yusef Salaam, has won a seat on the New York City Council, decades after he was falsely accused of r@pe 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.
‘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.
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.
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.
