He has also appeared with other involved men in presentations at local schools and colleges. Yusef Salaam was born in Harlem, New York City in 1975, the son of Sharon Salaam. Also retired New York City detective Edward Conlon, who had been involved with the case, in an article published in October 2014 in The Daily Beast, quoted incriminatory statements allegedly made by some of the youths after they had been taken into custody by police in April 1989. [16][17][18][19] Her skull had been fractured so badly that her left eye was dislodged from its socket, which in turn was fractured in 21 places, and she suffered as well from facial fractures. https://historica.fandom.com/wiki/Yusef_Salaam?oldid=212082. The sentences each of them served is as follows: On appeal, Salaam's attorneys charged that he had been held by police without access to parents or guardians. She came out of her coma after 12 days. [83][86] Some police sources claim the confession was made to gain favor and protection from Wise, who police claimed was regarded as having influence over New York inmates. He had never been identified as a suspect in the Central Park attack on Meili, although he had been at large at the time. [8] None of the five said that he had raped the jogger, but each confessed to having been an accomplice to the rape. When Meili first emerged from her coma, she was unable to talk, read, or walk. [70], The four youngest of the five convicted defendants each served between six and seven years in juvenile facilities. It was not until 1:30 a.m. that night that a female jogger was found in the North Woods area of the park. These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels. [7], In addition to the confessions, the filing noted that a "reconstruction of the events in the park has bared a significant conflict, one that was hinted at but not explored in depth at the trials: at the time the jogger was believed to have been attacked, the teenagers were said to be involved—either as spectators or participants—in muggings elsewhere in the park. At 9 p.m. on April 19, 1989, a group of an estimated 30–32 teenagers who lived in East Harlem entered Manhattan's Central Park at an entrance in Harlem, near Central Park North. New York City senior detectives said the term was used by the suspects when describing their actions to police. In 1989, Dr. Yusef Salaam was just fifteen years old when he was tried and convicted in the “Central Park Jogger Case” along with four other Black and Latino boys. [137] Juveniles have been found to make false confessions and guilty pleas at a much higher rate than adults. According to the Innocence Project, he has acted as an advocate with Santana and Salaam to reform New York State's criminal justice practices, advocating methods to prevent false confessions and eyewitness misidentifications. Yusef Salaam lived quite an interesting and tragic personal life that everyone would want to know about. Five male youths were tried in two trials for the rape and violent assault of Trisha Meili whilst she was on a evening jog (the 6th made a plea deal in 1991 for a lesser charge and had a lesser sentence). None of the three defense attorneys cross-examined her. Kassin, Saul (November 1, 2002). [144], The Central Park events, which were attributed at the time to members of the large group of youths who attacked numerous persons in the park, including whites, blacks and Hispanics, were covered as an extreme example of the violence that was occurring in the city, including assaults and robberies, rapes and homicides. [9] He said years later, "I would hear them beating up Korey Wise in the next room", and "they would come and look at me and say: 'You realize you're next.' [36] None of the six had defense attorneys during the interrogations or videotape process. Yusef Salaam, wrongly convicted of rape and assault, spoke about the tragic case of Kalief Browder on a panel that included public defender Karen Smolar and Asst. [147], The New York Times continued to report on the case, and followed up on prosecution of suspects. "[15], Meili was so badly injured that she was in a coma for 12 days. The accounts given by the five defendants differed from one another on the specific details of virtually every major aspect of the crime—who initiated the attack, who knocked the victim down, who undressed her, who struck her, who held her, who raped her, what weapons were used in the course of the assault, and when in the sequence of events the attack took place. By the time of the trial of the first three suspects in June 1990, The New York Times characterized the attack on the jogger as "one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s". Four of the five youths appealed their convictions in the rape case the following year, but Santana did not appeal. did act appropriately. [56], In a 2016 Guardian article, defense counsel William Warren was reported saying that he thought Trump's ads in 1989 had played a role in securing conviction by the juries, saying that "he poisoned the minds of many people who lived in New York City and who, rightfully, had a natural affinity for the victim. [117][118][119] Santana, Salaam, McCray, and Richardson each received around $7.1 million from the city for their years in prison, while Wise received $12.2 million because he had served six additional years. Four of the five in the Meili case were convicted in 1990 of rape, assault, and other charges; one of these was convicted of attempted murder; one was convicted on lesser charges but as an adult. [52][73], Through this period, each of the five continued to maintain their innocence in the rape and attack of Meili, including at hearings before parole boards. Salam … In addition, his DNA matched the DNA evidence at the scene, confirming that he was the sole source of the semen found in and on the victim "to a factor of one in 6,000,000,000 people". [6] The videotaped confessions were not started until April 21. To a packed audience in Sage Chapel, Yusef Salaam — a member of the falsely imprisoned “Exonerated Five” — spoke about his experiences with … [34] Although some of the five defendants who had been convicted had accused Lopez in their statements of the most severe violence against the jogger, these could not be used against him because of their convictions. The prosecutor planned to try the defendants in two groups and then scheduled the sixth defendant to be tried last. He named others of the group by first names in the group attacks on other persons but denied any knowledge of the female jogger. [101] Armstrong said the panel believed "the word of a serial rapist killer is not something to be heavily relied upon. [2][43] The advertisement, which cost an estimated US$85,000 (equivalent to $175,000 in 2019),[2][43] said, in part, Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. FILE - Honoree Yusef Salaam poses at the ACLU SoCal's 25th Annual Luncheon in Los Angeles on June 7, 2019. Speaking at a news conference in 2002, Bloomberg spoke of his confidence regarding the actions of the police department. The five other defendants, indicted for assaults of other victims, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and received less severe sentences. Steven Lopez, 14, was arrested with this group within an hour of the several attacks that were first reported to police. In late 2002, as a result of his team's review, the confession by Reyes, and DNA testing that confirmed Reyes was the sole source of semen, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau recommended vacating the convictions of the five defendants who had been convicted and sentenced to prison.[7]. Jesus is going to get you. "[6] Ryan continued: "Ultimately, there proved to be no physical or forensic evidence recovered at the scene or from the person or effects of the victim which connected the defendants to the attack on the jogger, or could establish how many perpetrators participated. The families of Lopez,[34] Richardson,[35] and Salaam[46] were able to make the $25,000 bail imposed by the court. Learn more . Under Michael Bloomberg's mayoral administration,[106] the City refused to pursue a settlement for the lawsuits based on a conclusion that the defendants had had a fair trial. [7], In 2001 Reyes met Wise when they were held at the Auburn Correctional Facility in upstate New York. "[101] The report said Reyes had most likely "either joined in the attack as it was ending or waited until the defendants had moved on to their next victims before descending upon her himself, raping her and inflicting upon her the brutal injuries that almost caused her death. In April 2003, Meili confirmed her identity to the media when she published a memoir entitled I Am the Central Park Jogger. This was the age at which a suspect could be questioned without a parent or guardian present. The four juvenile defendants served 6–7 years each; the 16-year-old was tried and sentenced as an adult and served 13 years in an adult prison. [24] Their editors said this was in response to the media having publicized the names and personal information about the five suspects, who were all minors before they were arraigned. [8], Although four suspects (all except Salaam) confessed on videotape in the presence of a parent or guardian (who had generally not been present during the interrogations), each of the four retracted his statement within weeks. One of those boys, Yusef Salaam, was just 15 years old when his life was upended and changed forever. Yusef Salaam Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after spending between seven and 13 years of their lives behind bars. After his release, he became an activist, speaking about his experiences. On the other hand, there was a general consistency that ran through the defendants' descriptions of the attack on the female jogger: she was knocked down on the road, dragged into the woods, hit and molested by several defendants, sexually abused by some while others held her arms and legs, and left semiconscious in a state of undress.[101][102]. [84][85] Reyes was then working at an East Harlem convenience store on Third Avenue and 102nd Street, and living in a van on the street. She had resumed jogging in 1989 three or four months after the attack, and over the years added a variety of other exercise and yoga practice. "[73] They received a total settlement of $3.9 million from the state in 2016, with varying amounts related to the period of time that each man had served in prison. Steve Lopez) indicted in the attack on the female jogger and other crimes were scheduled for trial.