Trump STILL stands by calling the Central Park Five guilty despite DNA being used to convict another man
- Five teens were convicted of the horrific rape and attack of a Central Park jogger in 1989
- During the furor over the crime, Trump took out full-page newspaper ads declaring: 'Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!'
- The teens, four black and one Hispanic, went to jail for the attack of a white woman after police said they accused each other of committing it
- They were later cleared after another man, a convicted rapist, confessed to the crime and DNA evidence linked him to the Central Park attack
- The five men reached a $41 million settlement with New York City in 2014
- Trump reignited the controversy this week, telling CNN in a statement: 'They admitted they were guilty'
- Hillary Clinton Friday accused Trump of peddling a 'racist lie' and having 'rushed to judgement'
Donald Trump reignited one of the most explosive racially-charged controversies of New York in the 1980s when he said the members of the 'Central Park Five' had 'admitted they were guilty.'
Trump made the statement this week to CNN, notwithstanding a $41 million settlement the five men reached with New York City after DNA evidence cleared them of the crime they went to jail for after the 1989 attack of a Central Park jogger.
'They admitted they were guilty,' Trump said in a statement to CNN.
'The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same,' Trump said.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to blast the settlement the city of New York reached with five-men wrongly imprisoned for the 'central park five' rape of a 28-year old. DNA evidence ultimately linked another man who confessed to the crime
The men want Trump to apologize for his role in the aftermath of the brutal rape and beating of a 28-year old investment banker, who was found tied up after being raped and hit with a rock after she went jogging in the park.
The boys, who were 14 to 16 years old at the time, recanted their confessions, which they maintained were forced by police during prolonged interrogation, after their arrests. But their original statements were admitted at trial.
One of them, Raymond Santana, Tweeted on Thursday: 'What more do we have to prove? I'm tired of proving our innocence! I don't care what this [expletive] thinks.' He wrote that Trump would 'never get the black and Latino vote.'
Although Trump didn't directly accuse the five boys of committing the crime, he took out a full-page ad in four newspapers in 1989 – in an act that helped elevate Trump as a political force.
Wrongly convicted 'Central Park Five' members Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson and Yusef Salaam (front L-R) attend a news conference announcing the payout for the case at City Hall in New York in 2014
Trump took out a full-age ad in New York newspapers during the furor over the 1989 case
Flowers were laid at the cite of the brutal attack and rape of a 28-year-old woman in central park in 1989
A policeman with some of the victim's clothes. Investigators were able to get confessions from the boys, aged 14-16 at the time, though they later recanted
Yusef Salaam, at age 16 pictured in 1990, was one of the five wrongfully convicted of the crime
'Bring Back The Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!' it said.
'I want to hate these muggers and murderers,' Trump wrote. 'They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes. They must serve as examples so that others will think long and hard before committing a crime or an act of violence.'
Hillary Clinton hit at Trump in a statement released Friday afternoon.
'The facts here are clear: These men were exonerated. Another man has admitted to committing the crime, as proven by DNA evidence,' Clinton said in the statement.
'Trump rushed to judgment on the case, has refused to admit he is wrong and continues to peddle yet another racist lie, a pattern for him and a clear reason why he is unfit to be president,' she said.
In 2002, convicted rapist Matias Reyes, who was serving time for rape and murder, confessed to the Central Park attack and said he committed the crime alone. DNA evidence then tied him to the crime.
Some of the now-men filed a lawsuit against the city in 2003.
One man Kharey Wise, served 13 years, while the others, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana Jr., served 7 years.
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