Trump’s Death-Penalty Ad — The Wrong Guys

Update: zFacts published the following post on Aug 24, 2016, and yesterday (Oct 6) Trump told CNN the Central Park Five were guilty in spite of another man’s confession, which was confirmed by DNA match. Trump is incapable of admitting a mistake or apologizing.

Trump spent $85,000 (double that in today’s money) on a full-page ad in the NY Times and three other newspapers.

BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY
AND BRING BACK OUR POLICE!

“What has happened to law and order? … I want to hate these muggers and murderers. ‘They should be forced to suffer … I want them to be afraid. … Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS.”

That was in 1989. But Trump’s surrogate, R. Sen. Sessions, commented on Trump’s Aug 16 Law and Order speech saying “That speech was great, … he bought an ad 20 years ago in the New York Times calling for the death penalty. … So he believes in law and order. The biggest benefits from that, really, are poor people.” Obviously.

Well the four black kids and one brown kid (ages 14 to 16) that his ad helped convict where poor kids. And 13 years later Matias Reyes confessed that he alone slashed and raped Trisha Meili on April 19, 1989, as she was jogging in Central Park. DNA evidence confirmed he was the rapist.

The conviction of the “Central Park Five” was overturned. Of course, the Donald has never apologized for that ad. Understandable enough. That would likely dampen the spirits of the good Sen. Sessions.

The Racism Continues

Now if you dig into this you will learn that the boys confessed, and you will read that even though Reyes committed the rape, they five boys must have been involved (and just forgot to mention Reyes in the confessions which did not fit the facts of the crime).

In fact Reyes committed five other rapes and one murder, and became known at the “East Side Slasher.” His pattern was to beat or stab the women around the eyes, so they would not be able to identify him. His attack on Trisha Meili fit his modus operandi, in that Meili was beaten most heavily around her eyes. One of his rapes was committed two days earlier also in Central Park. From his description, a detective identified him, but mysteriously, he was never questioned.

These facts are from a recent book by Sarah Burns on the crime. It is the basis of a film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012, was named the Best Non-Fiction film of 2012 by the New York Film Critics Circle and won a 2013 Peabody Award.

In her book, she states that “Race not only inspired the extreme reactions to the crime; it also made it easier for so many to believe that these five teenaged boys had committed the crime in the first place, and no one was suggesting that they might, in fact, be innocent.”

Click to enlarge Trump’s 1989 ad: