During Tuesday night’s presidential debate, former President Donald Trump revived the controversy by defending his decades-old position on the Central Park Five case, a racially based issue that has long overshadowed his public life. The debate took a sharp turn when Vice President Kamala Harris confronted Trump about his infamous 1989 ad calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty following the news.
Trump’s ad, released at the height of the case of five black and Latino teenagers wrongfully convicted of the rape and assault of a jogger in Central Park, was the focal point of Harris’s criticism. “You called for the execution of five young black and Latino men who were innocent,” Harris said, pressing Trump on his refusal to apologize even after their exoneration.
In response, Trump labelled Harris as “divisive” and defended his actions by claiming that others, including former mayor Michael Bloomberg, agreed with him at the time. However, Trump’s defense included several inaccuracies. First of all, the Central Park Five never pleaded guilty; they were convicted after coerced confessions, later proven false. DNA evidence exonerated them in 2002, and their convictions were overturned. Furthermore, Trump’s claim that the victim died is also incorrect: she survived the attack but remained in a coma.
Trump’s refusal to apologize for his role in the case has been a consistent topic in his presidential campaigns. Even in 2019, when asked about the apology, Trump claimed that the teenagers had “admitted their guilt”, despite being later disproved.
After the debate, Yusef Salaam, one of the exonerated men and now a New York City councilman, confronted Trump at an event following the debate. In their brief meeting, Salaam made it clear that he was not on Trump’s side, despite the latter’s initial presumption. Salaam openly criticized Trump’s response to the case, stating that Trump refuses to acknowledge the scientific evidence which exonerates the group.
While the debate over racial injustice continues to influence the 2024 election, Trump’s unyielding stance on the Central Park Five remains a symptom of the broader divisions over race and justice in the United States.
