The men, black and Latino, known as the “Central Park Five” were teenagers when they were wrongly convicted of raping the woman in New York’s Central Park. They were exonerated in 2002 and years later received $41 million in compensation from the city of New York. The woman survived the crime.
Trump “falsely claimed that plaintiffs killed a person and pleaded guilty to the crime” during the presidential debate, the lawsuit says. This is demonstrably false. “Plaintiffs never pleaded guilty to a crime and were later cleared of any wrongdoing.”
The lawsuit also recalls that 11 days after the Central Park incident, Trump published a full-page ad in four newspapers calling for the reintroduction of the death penalty in New York. Harris referenced the ad during the debate, accusing the Republican of trying to “divide Americans on issues of race” throughout his career.
Trump responded in the debate that many had agreed on the “Central Park Five” at the time. He then said: “Well, if they plead guilty, they have seriously injured a person and ultimately killed a person.”
