Yusef Salaam is one of the Central Park Five — five young men of color wrongfully convicted in 1989 of sexually assaulting Trisha Meili, a white woman jogging in Central Park. The “Central Park jogger” case became national news, and the accused — all between the ages of fourteen and sixteen — were held up as examples of alleged “wilding” by “wolf packs” of black and Latino youth.

Fanning the flames of the witch hunt was Donald Trump, who bought full-page ads in four New York City newspapers using the Central Park jogger case to call for New York State to bring back the death penalty. The ad used the same bloodthirsty themes that became a staple of his law-and-order campaign speeches: “How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalization of its citizens by crazed misfits? Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!”

In 2002, after four of the five defendants had completed their sentences, the Central Park Five were exonerated when Matias Reyes confessed to the crime, and DNA evidence confirmed he was the lone attacker. Yet Trump insisted earlier this month that the five teenagers were guilty — an outrageous statement, though it was quickly overshadowed in the media by the release of tapes of Trump bragging about committing sexual assault.