Central Park Five: Full-Page Death Penalty Ads, Refusal to Acknowledge Exoneration

Overview

In 1989, Donald Trump paid $85,000 for full-page ads in four New York City newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in response to the Central Park jogger assault. The five teenagers he was targeting — ages 14 to 16 — were convicted on coerced confessions. They served sentences of 6 to 13 years.

In 2002, DNA evidence and a confession from the actual perpetrator exonerated them. In 2014, New York City paid $41 million to settle their civil rights lawsuit.

In 2019, Trump continued to insist they were guilty.

The Ads

The full-page ads ran in the New York Times, New York Post, New York Daily News, and New York Newsday. Trump paid for them personally. The headline was "BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE." The ads called for restoring the death penalty and described "roving bands of wild criminals" preying on the city.

The teenagers Trump was calling to execute ranged from 14 to 16 years old and had not yet been convicted.

The Exoneration

The confessions that convicted the Central Park Five were obtained during interrogations lasting between 14 and 30 hours, without attorneys present. Each teenager gave a video confession. All five maintained they were innocent throughout their imprisonment.

In 2002, Matias Reyes — serving life for a series of rapes including one committed the week after the Central Park attack — confessed to the jogger assault. His DNA matched the evidence. The five men's DNA did not.

The Refusal

After the exoneration, after the conviction reversal, after the $41 million settlement, Trump still would not acknowledge what the DNA evidence had established. In 2019, he told reporters: "They admitted their guilt." The confessions had been vacated as coerced 17 years earlier. "A settlement doesn't mean they were innocent."

The settlement was $41 million for years of wrongful imprisonment.