The lawsuit, filed in a Pennsylvania court, accuses the former president of making "false and defamatory" comments.
Five men wrongfully convicted of the 1989 rape of a woman in New York's Central Park have filed a defamation lawsuit against Republican candidate Donald Trump. The lawsuit was submitted on Monday in a Pennsylvania court, alleging that the former president made "false and defamatory" remarks during a presidential debate.
The five men—four Black and one Latino—were just teenagers when they were accused of raping and nearly killing a young white woman who was jogging in Central Park. Despite significant flaws in the prosecution's case, including DNA evidence that did not match theirs, the men were wrongfully convicted and spent between six and 13 years in prison. Their convictions were ultimately overturned after a serial rapist confessed to the crime.
In 2014, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Korey Wise received $41 million in compensation for their wrongful imprisonment.
According to the lawsuit, during the presidential debate, Trump “falsely claimed that the plaintiffs killed a person and pleaded guilty to the crime.” The suit contends, “These statements are false.”
The young men were subjected to lengthy interrogations without legal representation and were prosecuted based on confessions that implicated one another, which they later asserted were coerced.
The lawsuit also highlighted that eleven days after the Central Park incident, Trump took out a full-page ad in four New York newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty.
During the debate, Trump referenced the “Central Park Five” after his opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris, brought up the ad to illustrate his use of race to “divide Americans.”
This case, which captured national attention and revealed racial discrimination in New York, also inspired the Netflix miniseries "When They See Us."
