UNITED STATES NEWS

Exonerated member of ‘Central Park Five’ wins primary, nearly assuring seat on NYC Council

Jul 5, 2023, 9:19 AM | Updated: 9:34 am

New York City Council candidate Yusef Salaam smiles during an interview with The Associated Press, ...

New York City Council candidate Yusef Salaam smiles during an interview with The Associated Press, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in New York. Salaam is one of three candidates in a competitive June 27 Democratic primary. With early voting already begun, he faces two seasoned political veterans: New York Assembly members Al Taylor, 65, and Inez Dickens, 73, who previously represented Harlem on the City Council. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

NEW YORK (AP) — wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned as a teenager for the rape and beating of a white jogger in Central Park.

Salaam’s primary win is for the seat representing Central Harlem on the City Council. The Associated Press refrained from calling the race on election night but additional votes released Wednesday showed him to be the clear winner.

“I am here because, Harlem, you believed in me,” Salaam said in his victory speech Tuesday night.

Salaam and the four other Black and Latino teens from Harlem became known as the “Central Park Five” after their arrest in 1985 in the headline-grabbing rape, one of the city’s most notorious and racially fraught crimes. He served nearly seven years in prison before the group was exonerated through DNA evidence.

His outsider campaign prevailed over two seasoned political veterans — New York Assembly members Inez Dickens, 73, and Al Taylor, 65 — in his first bid for public office. The incumbent, democratic socialist Kristin Richardson Jordan, dropped out of the race in May but remained on the ballot.

Salaam declared victory on election night with his vote tally barely exceeding 50%, even though an unknown number of absentee ballots were yet to be counted. But his lead over Dickens, his nearest competitor, seemed insurmountable, and both she and Taylor conceded.

Salaam fell slightly below 50% of the vote in Wednesday’s update, triggering the release of preliminary ranked choice voting results that showed him as the clear winner. The city’s Board of Elections was still tabulating late-arriving mail ballots that could potentially push him back above the 50% threshold for an election night victory.

While all three candidates focused on promoting affordable housing, controlling gentrification and easing poverty in Harlem, Salaam capitalized on his celebrity in neighborhoods that consider the Central Park Five — now the Exonerated Five — living symbols of the injustices faced by the Black and Latino residents who make up about three-fourth’s of the district’s population.

Zambi Mwendwa said she voted for Salaam because he is “a new face.” She said her decision had nothing to do with the injustice in his past.

“I’ve heard him talk. He seems to be talking about the things I care about,” Mwendwa said on election day.

But for many others, Salaam’s status as a member of the Central Park Five was a motivating factor.

“He comes from the neighborhood, and he was incarcerated then turned himself around,” Carnation France said. “He’s trying to do something for the people.”

Salaam’s lack of experience in public office might have actually worked in his favor, according to Amani Onyioha, a partner at Sole Strategies, which ran phone banks and engaged residents on Salaam’s behalf.

“In a time like this, when people are looking for a hero, they’re looking for somebody who can relate to them,” Onyioha said.

“I think people saw him as a survivor,” Onyioha said. “He was vindicated and the system eventually ended up working out for him.”

Salaam moved to Georgia shortly after he was released and became an activist, a motivational speaker, an authoor and a poet. He returned only in December to launch his campaign.

Salaam was 15 when he was arrested along with Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise, who served between five and 12 years in prison before prosecutors agreed to reexamine the case. DNA evidence and a confession ultimately linked a serial rapist and murderer to the attack, but he wasn’t prosecuted because too much time had passed. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 and the city ultimately agreed in a legal settlement to pay the exonerated men a combined $41 million.

A 2012 Ken Burns documentary called “The Central Park Five” rekindled public attention on the men’s childhood saga. More recently, a 2019 television miniseries, “When They See Us,” drew attention again, just before the Black Lives Matter Movement was launched in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Donald Trump, who in 1989 placed ads in four newspapers before the group went on trial with the blaring headline, “Bring Back the Death Penalty,” later refused to apologize, saying all five had pleaded guilty, a reference to their coerced confessions. Salaam reminded voters of that in April, putting out his own full-page ad, headlined “Bring Back Justice & Fairness,” in response to one of Trump’s indictments.

Burns and his codirectors applauded Harlem voters for “electing a man who has dedicated his life to reconciliation.”

United States News

Associated Press

Kidnapped teen rescued from Southern California motel room after 4 days of being held hostage

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) — Authorities rescued a 17-year-old boy in Southern California after he was kidnapped and held hostage for four days by captors who threatened to harm him if his family did not pay a $500,000 ransom. The teen was rescued Friday after law enforcement tracked him and his three kidnappers to a […]

1 hour ago

This Aug. 17, 2021 photo shows Quagga mussels cover the engine of a Bell P-39 Airacobra military pl...

Associated Press

Historians race to find Great Lakes shipwrecks before quagga mussels destroy the sites

An invasive mussel is destroying shipwrecks deep in the depths of the lakes, forcing archeologists and amateur historians into a race against time to find as many sites as they can before the region touching eight U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario loses any physical trace of its centuries-long maritime history.

2 hours ago

A sign marks a roadside rest stop that has been made to look like the historic security gate that a...

Associated Press

Birthplace of the atomic bomb braces for its biggest mission since the top-secret Manhattan Project

Los Alamos was the perfect spot for the U.S. government’s top-secret Manhattan Project.

6 hours ago

Associated Press

Suspect arrested after shooting at the Oklahoma State Fair injures 1, police say

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — One person was injured when shots were fired during an argument between two groups of people at the Oklahoma State Fair on Saturday, sending a crowd of people running for safety, police said. One person was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon after the evening shooting, Oklahoma […]

7 hours ago

Associated Press

Former NHL player Nicolas Kerdiles dies after a motorcycle crash in Nashville. He was 29

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former NHL player Nicolas Kerdiles died Saturday after a motorcycle crash in Nashville, according to police. He was 29. The one-time hockey player for the Anaheim Ducks drove his motorcycle through a stop sign early Saturday and hit the driver’s side of an SUV, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. […]

8 hours ago

Associated Press

Hazing lawsuit filed against University of Alabama fraternity

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — A student and his parents have filed a lawsuit against a University of Alabama fraternity, saying he suffered a traumatic brain injury while being hazed as a fraternity pledge earlier this year. The lawsuit filed last week accuses Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and others associated with it of fraud, negligence and […]

8 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

...

Ignite Digital

How to unlock the power of digital marketing for Phoenix businesses

All businesses around the Valley hopes to maximize their ROI with current customers and secure a greater market share in the digital sphere.

Sanderson Ford...

Sanderson Ford

Sanderson Ford congratulates D-backs’ on drive to great first half of 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks just completed a red-hot first half of the major league season, and Sanderson Ford wants to send its congratulations to the ballclub.

...

Mayo Clinic

Game on! Expert sports physicals focused on you

With tryouts quickly approaching, now is the time for parents to schedule physicals for their student-athlete. The Arizona Interscholastic Association requires that all student-athletes must have a physical exam completed before participating in team practices or competition.

Exonerated member of ‘Central Park Five’ wins primary, nearly assuring seat on NYC Council