Exonerated "Central Park Five" member Yusef Salaam won a seat Tuesday on the New York City Council, marking a stunning reversal of fortune for a political newcomer who was wrongly imprisoned as a teenager in the infamous rape case, the AP reports. Salaam, a Democrat, will represent a central Harlem district on the City Council, having run unopposed for the seat in one of many local elections happening across New York state on Tuesday. He won his primary election in a landslide. The victory comes more than two decades after DNA evidence was used to overturn the convictions of Salaam and four other Black and Latino men in the 1989 rape and beating of a white jogger in Central Park. Salaam was imprisoned for almost seven years.
"For me, this means that we can really become our ancestors' wildest dreams," Salaam said in an interview before the election. The council, which passes legislation and has some oversight powers over city agencies, has long been dominated by Democrats and the party is certain to retain firm control after the election. Salaam was just 15 years old when he 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 Donald 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. 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.
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