Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Smart had been youngsters once they had been accused of the 1989 rape and beating of a white lady jogger in New York Metropolis’s Central Park. The 5, who’re Black and Latino, mentioned they confessed to the crimes beneath duress. They later recanted, pleading not responsible in court docket, and had been later convicted after jury trials. Their convictions had been vacated in 2002 after one other particular person confessed to the crime.
After the crime, Trump bought a full-page advert within the New York Occasions, calling for the kids to be executed. The jogger case was Trump’s first foray into tough-on-crime politics that preluded his full-throated populist political persona. Since then, canine whistles and overtly racist rhetoric have been fixtures of Trump’s public life.
