The Democratic National Convention roared on Thursday in support of the Exonerated Five, five Black and Latino teenagers who were accused in 1989 of a brutal attack on a White investment banker in New York City's Central Park.
Trisha Meili was found with severe trauma and rape injuries and left in a coma. Five teenagers — Antron McCray, 15; Kevin Richardson, 15; Yusef Salaam, 15; Raymond Santana, 14; and Korey Wise, 16 — were arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison in the case.
DNA evidence would later exonerate them, but not before Donald Trump paid to take out an advertisement that said: “I want to hate these murderers and I always will. I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton introduced four members of the five at the DNC on day four of the DNC.
"I want to bring out some young men that I fought for," said Sharpton, to thunderous applause.
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"We won't go back," said Wise to more applause.
"Thirty-five years ago my friends and I were imprisoned for a crime we did not commit. Our youth was stolen from us. Every day as we walked into the courtroom people screamed at us. Threatened us. Because of Donald Trump. He spent $85,000 on a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for our execution. We were innocent kids."
Salaam then took the stage and said he is now a New York City councilman representing Harlem.
"As my friend Korey Wise just said: 45 wanted us un-alived. He wanted us dead. Today we are exonerated because the actual perpetrator confessed — and DNA proved it. That guy says he still stands by the original guilty verdict. He dismisses the scientific evidence rather than admit he was wrong. He has never changed — and never will."
Watch the clip below or at this link.
