Central Park Five: Full-Page Death Penalty Ads and Refusal to Acknowledge Exoneration
Tier 3Active Litigation1989-05-01 to 2024-10-01
Factual Summary
In May 1989, Donald Trump paid for full-page advertisements in four New York City newspapers, including the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, and Newsday, calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York State. The ads were published in response to the arrest of five Black and Latino teenagers in connection with the rape and near-fatal assault of a woman jogger in Central Park on April 19, 1989. The advertisements cost approximately $85,000 and stated, in part: "BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!"
The five teenagers, who became known as the Central Park Five, were Korey Wise (age 16), Kevin Richardson (age 14), Raymond Santana (age 14), Antron McCray (age 15), and Yusef Salaam (age 15). All five were from Harlem. After interrogations lasting between 14 and 30 hours, four of the five gave videotaped statements that were introduced as confessions at trial, though all five subsequently stated that the confessions were coerced. The teenagers were convicted in 1990 and sentenced to prison terms. They served between 6 and 13 years in total.
In 2002, Matias Reyes, a serial rapist and murderer already serving a life sentence, confessed to committing the Central Park attack alone. DNA evidence confirmed that Reyes was the perpetrator and that none of the five teenagers had contributed any DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene. The Manhattan District Attorney's office investigated and corroborated Reyes's account. In December 2002, a New York State Supreme Court judge vacated all five convictions. The men were formally exonerated.
In 2003, the five men filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of New York. In 2014, the city settled the case for approximately $41 million.
Trump did not acknowledge the exoneration. In October 2016, during the presidential campaign, Trump stated in an interview that the Central Park Five "admitted they were guilty" and maintained that their guilt had not been disproved. The men had not admitted guilt. Their convictions had been vacated and their civil settlement had been concluded more than a decade earlier.
In 2024, members of the group filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump for his continued public statements asserting their guilt after their exoneration. As of the dateEnd of this entry, that litigation was active.
Primary Sources
1. Full-page advertisement placed by Donald Trump, New York Daily News, May 1, 1989, reproduced and archived by multiple news organizations
2. People v. Wise et al., Manhattan Supreme Court, order vacating convictions, December 19, 2002
3. New York City settlement agreement, Wise v. City of New York, $41 million, 2014, confirmed by the New York City Comptroller's office
4. Trump interview with CNN's Miguel Marquez, October 7, 2016, in which Trump stated the Central Park Five "admitted they were guilty": https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/politics/trump-central-park-five/
5. Defamation lawsuit filed against Trump by members of the Central Park Five, 2024, filed in federal court
Corroborating Sources
1. New York Times: "Five Teenagers Convicted of Rape, Not DNA: The Central Park Jogger Case Revisited," 2002
2. PBS documentary: "The Central Park Five," dir. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon, 2012
3. Netflix docuseries: "When They See Us," Ava DuVernay, 2019
4. New York Times: "City Agrees to Settle Central Park Five Lawsuit for $41 Million," June 19, 2014: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/nyregion/city-agrees-to-settle-central-park-five-lawsuit-for-41-million.html
5. New York Magazine: "Trump Refuses to Apologize to the Central Park Five," October 2016
Counterarguments and Context
Trump has not publicly apologized to any of the five men and has continued to maintain that the original convictions reflected guilt. In the 2016 interview, he referenced the videotaped statements made by the teenagers during interrogation. His position has been that the settlement with the city was a political decision rather than an acknowledgment of innocence, and that the vacated convictions reflected prosecutorial discretion rather than factual exoneration. Legal experts and the presiding court found otherwise. The Manhattan District Attorney's office under Robert Morgenthau conducted an independent reinvestigation in 2002 and concluded that Reyes acted alone and that the teenagers' confessions, while recorded, were not reliable. The office affirmatively supported the motion to vacate. Five individuals who were minors at the time of their arrest were convicted, imprisoned, and subsequently exonerated through DNA evidence and the confession of the actual perpetrator.
Author's Note
This entry spans 35 years because the relevant conduct has two distinct phases: the 1989 newspaper advertisements and the post-exoneration statements made beginning in 2002 and continuing through at least 2024. The 1989 advertisements preceded any conviction and called for capital punishment by name for individuals who were presumed innocent. The post-exoneration statements came after the convictions had been formally vacated by a court and after a $41 million civil settlement had been paid. The defamation litigation filed in 2024 makes this an active matter as of the entry date.