Central Park Five feel 'truly exonerated' after Trump is voted out, slam him as 'worst president in history'
The Central Park Five, who now call themselves The Exonerated Five, have said that they cannot wait to watch President Donald Trump leave the White House after years of "dividing the country." All the five men - Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Korey Wise, Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam, expressed their happiness at Trump's defeat on Twitter days after news outlets called the 2020 presidential race for former Vice President Joe Biden.
The five Black and Hispanic men were falsely convicted in their teens in the aggravated assault and rape case of a White woman, later publicly identified as Trish Meili, in Manhattan's Central Park on April 19, 1989. They all served their prison sentences, spanning between six to 12 years, before being exonerated in 2002 after another inmate, Matias Reyes, confessed to the crime. Trump, during the time of their conviction, took out full-page advertisements in four of New York City's newspapers, demanding that the teens be given death penalty for raping the woman in Central Park.
Trump, however, refused to apologize for the advertisement despite the men's exoneration and maintained that they were still guilty. He also called a $41million settlement the men were given by the city as a "disgrace" and "the heist of the century."
In a recent Twitter post, Raymond Santana, said that the group felt that "justice" had finally been served after Trump was voted out this month. He tweeted a picture of the five men with a message for President Trump, writing: "@realdonaldtrump you thought we wouldn't make it, you thought we wouldn't prevail. #TheExonerated5 #wearestillhere."
Wise, in a separate post on Instagram, shared his joy by sharing a clip of him dancing in the street. He wrote in the caption: "Thank you America for believing that your VOTE matters!!! It's been a long time coming, but for the first time I truly feel exonerated."
Santana also shared an Instagram post, featuring a picture of Muhammad Ali towering over Sonny Liston after their World Heavyweight Championship boxing bout in 1965. He wrote: "You held the highest position in the land for 4 years and you did nothing but divide the country. You let racism surface and many lives were lost because you never stood on the side of justice. You spread lies and supported white supremacy. You mocked and made fun of the innocent. And because of your selfishness over 240,000 Americans lost their lives to a virus that could have been prevented. You could have saved them..but you didn't."
"You will go down as the worst president in history. We will never forget how you almost Destroyed our country. How you disrespected our people and almost started a civil war," he continued. "Well... Now it's time. Your reign of terror is over.. no more lies, no more bulls***..now its time for you to leave that office and disappear... it's time to let real people who care about this country now work on repairing and healing this country."
"You thought that when you put out the $85,000 page ad in the newspaper that we wouldn't survive. That we would be served with some kind of street justice.. but guess what? We are still here. We get to watch as you make your exit out of the White House.. sitting in the front row...(getting my popcorn ready!)," he added. While Richardson shared a picture of him enjoying a brunch with his wife after Biden's election victory. He wrote: "Celebrating the Defeat ( it was very personal!!!!! ) of Agent orange. Today was a good day. Time to restore this country, we have a lot of work to do, but let's do this."