Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park 5 exonerated in the headline-grabbing, racially-polarizing rape of a white Manhattan jogger, is running for public office, sources close to his campaign said Friday.
Nearly 20 years after a judge vacated convictions against him and four of his buddies in one of the most sensational criminal justice cases in city history, Salaam has told associates that he is running to fill the seat being vacated by Harlem state Sen. Brian Benjamin (D), who was nominated last week to be New York’s next lieutenant governor.
Associates said Salaam, 47, plans to focus, in part, on issues that made his name synonymous with wrongful conviction: criminal justice and prison reform, police brutality and the abolition of juvenile solitary confinement.
He has worked as an activist, author and motivational speaker.
Salaam has his work cut out for him. Although Benjamin has yet to officially vacate the seat, other likely candidates for the post include state Assembly members Al Taylor and Inez Dickens, who represent adjoining parts of the 30th Senate district.
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The district includes Harlem, East Harlem and the Upper West Side.
Benjamin is not expected to vacate the seat until after Labor Day. After he’s gone a special election will be scheduled, and will likely coincide with races taking place in November, officials said.
Salaam could not be reached for comment.
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Cops and critics argued that the defendants were part of a group of marauders who menaced people in the park – wilding was the term widely used – robbing, beating and harassing joggers, walkers and people sitting on benches.
All five suspects were convicted, each spending between seven and 13 years in prison.
Salaam served nearly seven years in jail on first-degree rape and robbery charges., and had already been free five years when his conviction was vacated along with the others.
Yusef Salaam (center) (Roca, John)
“The overwhelming feeling that I have towards the police and prosecutors is that they knew that we had not done this crime,” Salaam told NPR earlier this year. “They knew it, but yet they chose to move forward. They built their careers off of our backs. And the law of karma caught up to them.”
Salaam, Kharey Wise, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson and Raymond Santana all had their convictions overturned in 2002 after a prison inmate, Matias Reyes, said he was the one who raped the jogger, and DNA evidence backed his confession.
