Yusef Salaam, 49, one of five Black and Latino teenagers convicted in the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park and exonerated decades later, was elected on Tuesday night to represent Harlem on the New York City Council, The New York Times reported. Salaam spoke frequently during his campaign about his conviction, exoneration and persecution by former President Donald J. Trump, who took out full-page ads in The New York Times and other papers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in response to the case of the Central Park jogger.
On Election Night, on Tuesday, Salaam said Tuesday night that it was ironic that as he was elected to the Council, Trump was facing multiple criminal charges. “I hope he gets treated the way we did not,” Mr. Salaam said. “They judged us guilty before we had a fair trial.” He said he was ultimately led to public office by his life experience, which “guides me and informs me and allows me to be a humble servant for the people.”
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