'Exonerated Five' Exhibit Gets Harlem Community Board Backing

CENTRAL PARK, NY — A Harlem community board voted this month to support the creation of an exhibit in Central Park that would tell the story of the five teenagers wrongfully convicted of attacking a jogger in the park in a landmark 1989 case.

A permanent exhibit dedicated to the Exonerated Five — formerly known as the Central Park Five — was first proposed by community members in October 2019, according to a Community Board 10 resolution that passed unanimously this month. The exhibit will focus on the stories of the five men — Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise — and themes of social justice.

"The experience of the Exonerated Five and their families was not exceptional. It fits an historical pattern of unjust arrests and wrongful convictions of black and Latino young men in the United States. We must understand this pattern to be able to channel the recently new-found interest in the case into the necessary systemic reforms," the Community Board 10 resolution reads.

The board held three separate discussions with community leaders, elected officials and city agencies this year to discuss the proposed exhibit.

Santana, Richardson, McCray, Salaam and Wise were convicted for the 1989 attack and rape of White banker Trisha Melli as she jogged through Central Park. Prosecutors based the case, which exacerbated already tense race relations in New York, largely on coerced confessions of the teenagers. President Donald Trump notably took out full-page ads in the New York Times and city tabloids that demanded: "Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!"

Santana, Richardson, McCray, Salaam served seven years in prison and Wise, who was tried as an adult at the age of 16, served 13 years. In 2002, another man confessed to the crime and the five were exonerated after being cleared by DNA evidence. The city eventually settled a lawsuit with the men for $41 million.

The board's resolution will be sent to the city government as a show of support for the exhibit, but the city must then take action to bring any sort of exhibit or monument to fruition. New York City's community boards serve a solely advisory function.