It is an extraordinary political revenge. Victim of one of the biggest cases of judicial failure in the United States, Yusef Salaam, won Wednesday, the Democratic primary of the elections of the city council of New York, for the district of Harlem. 34 years ago, he was wrongly convicted of raping a jogger in Central Park.
With 64% of the vote, he unexpectedly beat Inez Dickens, the candidate supported by the city’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams. The victory of Yusef Salaam in the general elections, which will take place in November, is therefore almost guaranteed in this Democratic stronghold.
“What happened in this campaign gave me confidence knowing that I was born for this,” he said after the announcement of the results of the poll, giving him the winner.
The 49-year-old man, defending the interests of the inhabitants of Harlem, the district where he grew up, particularly focused on the housing problems linked to the gentrification of the territory. Also an activist for justice reform, he made his tragic story the driving force behind his electoral campaign.
A wrongful conviction that became the driving force behind his commitment
During his speech, he called his imprisonment at the age of 15 not only a “kidnapping” but also a “gift” that allowed him to see the racial injustice of the American criminal justice system.
It all started on April 19, 1989, when a 28-year-old jogger was violently assaulted and raped in Central Park, New York. She is left for dead and found in a coma 4 hours later. Fractured skull, bulging eye, serious injuries: the young woman lost three quarters of her blood and when she woke up, she no longer remembered the tragedy.
Teenagers, all minors, are quickly suspected and arrested for this attack. Five of them – four African Americans and one Hispanic – were tried and sentenced to heavy prison terms. Among them: Yusef Salaam, then 15 years old.
At a time of significant violence in New York, the story gains momentum in the media and the young convicts are then nicknamed the “Central Park Five”. In response to this case, former President Donald Trump, then a real estate magnate, published a four-page advertisement in the New York Times, calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty. The newspaper would later call this case “one of the most publicized crimes of the 1980s”.
It was not until 2002 that Yusef Salaam and the four other young offenders were cleared. Matias Reyes, serial rapist sentenced to life imprisonment, admits to being solely responsible for the attack. The investigation is reopened and many inconsistencies are noted: the five men are released, after seven years behind bars. They will only be compensated in 2014, up to a total of 41 million euros.
Subsequently, Yusef Salaam became an activist for the reform of the American judicial and police system and the end of the isolation of minors in detention. He spoke about these difficulties of reintegration after prison, despite his innocence. “Jail is a continuous punishment,” he said. But if you survive prison, all the doors that lead to success will be slammed in your face.”
In 2016, Barack Obama presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award, an honorary award recognizing a person’s entire life, career or work.
2023-07-07 15:27:59
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