Exonerated 'Central Park 5' member mimics Trump's 1980s ad that called for the return of the death penalty

• One of the "Central Park Five" mimicked a 1989 full-page ad that Trump placed calling for the death penalty.
• Yusef Salaam was one of five Black and Latino teenagers wrongly convicted of raping a white woman.

An exonerated member of the so-called "Central Park Five" mimicked a full-page ad that Donald Trump placed in 1989 calling for the return of the death penalty in New York State.

In the ad, which was posted on Twitter, Yusef Salaam mocked Trump's recent indictment and arrest while imitating the statement Trump advertised in multiple New York newspapers.

Salaam was one of five Black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly convicted of the assault and rape of a young white woman in Central Park. After spending many years in prison, they were released and exonerated after Matias Reyes confessed to the crime in 2002.

While Trump's ads did not explicitly call for the death penalty for the five, it was clear that the ads came in response to the attack, The New York Times reported.

Salaam, who announced in February that he was running for city council for central Harlem, appeared to ridicule Trump's original ad that called for "law and order" after the former president was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an indictment related to hush-money payments before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.

—Yusef Abdus Salaam (@dr_yusefsalaam) April 5, 2023

"On May 1, 1989, almost thirty-four years ago, Donald J. Trump spent $85,000 to take out full-page ads in The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, and New York Newsday, calling for the execution of the Central Park Five," Salaam wrote.

It was "an act he has never apologized for," he said. "After several decades and an unfortunate and disastrous presidency, we all know who exactly Donald J. Trump is — a man who seeks to deny justice and fairness for others while claiming only innocence for himself," Salaam's statement continued.

Last week, Salaam issued a single-word response to the news of the indictment: "Karma."

—Raymond Santana (@santanaraymond) April 5, 2023

Now known as the "Exonerated Five," Salaam, along with Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise, received a multi-million dollar settlement from NYC after they were coerced into confessing to the crime by police.

Salaam, however, said he ultimately wished Trump "no harm," even though the former president had "effectively called for my death and the death of four other innocent children."

"Rather, I am putting my faith in the judicial system to seek out the truth," he added.

"I hope that you exercise your civil liberties to the fullest, and that you get what the Exonerated 5 did not get — a presumption of innocence, and a fair trial."