Exonerated Central Park Five defendant calls Trump indictment ‘karma’

Editor’s note: The so-called Central Park Five were accused in 1989 of sexually assaulting a woman in New York. The information was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.

In 1989, five Black and Latino teenagers were wrongly convicted of assaulting and raping a white woman in New York’s Central Park. At the time, New York real estate businessman Donald Trump bought a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the state to adopt the death penalty.

Although the ad did not explicitly call for the five boys — who became known as the Central Park Five — to face the death penalty, Trump repeatedly spoke out about the case, and, according to The New York Times, made clear that he was voicing this opinion because of the assault. 

“I want to hate these murderers and I always will,” Trump wrote in his ad. “I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them.”

On Thursday, shortly after the former president was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan, one of the men from the Central Park Five called the change of events “karma.” 

“For those asking about my statement on the indictment of Donald Trump — who never said sorry for calling for my execution — here it is: Karma,” Yusef Salaam, now a candidate for New York City Council, tweeted on Thursday. 

The former president was indicted on criminal charges in New York on Thursday for his role in organizing hush money payments made to an adult film star during his 2016 campaign. It is the first time any president — sitting or former — has been indicted on a criminal matter.

Salaam, and the four others accused of the assault in 1989 — Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray — were convicted and served seven years in prison. But they later said they were coerced into giving a false confession to police.

Still, in 2019, Trump refused to apologize for his comments. 

“You have people on both sides of that,” he said at the time. “They admitted their guilt.”

In 2002, DNA evidence identified the actual attacker, and the Central Park Five were exonerated. In 2014, the city paid $41 million to settle their civil rights lawsuit. 

—Updated at 4:45 p.m.