Legal Lessons from a Member of the Central Park Five
One of the Central Park Five will be the featured speaker tonight Feb. 25th at 6 pm in the UT-Knoxville Student Union Ballroom 272C. Yusef Salaam will address “Visions of American Criminal Justice Reform: Lessons From the Central Park Five.”
In the early 1990s, the Central Park 5 case divided the nation across racial and class lines. Five young men, four Black and one Latino, were held up as symbols to validate the accusation of inherent brutality and criminality of black and brown skin.
A Netflix limited series “Central Park Five” directed by Ava DuVernay will be released later this year.
Although they had not committed a crime, they were tried and convicted in a court of law and public opinion of the 1989 brutal rape of a white investment banker. The case drew international attention. The convictions of the 5 teens raised questions regarding police coercion and false confessions, as well as, the vulnerability of juveniles during police interrogations.
During that time Donald Trump fanned flames of anger by purchasing a full-page newspaper ad calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty while proclaiming the boys’ guilt.
Salaam served almost 7-years in prison. The exoneration of the five young men received little press coverage or apologies. But resulted in a $40 million settlement. Now 30-years later, in an era shaped by the tension between an entrenched system of mass incarceration of black and brown bodies and the rise of the Black Lives Matter reform movement, this event will use the Central Park 5 case as a vehicle to reflect on the evolution of the US criminal justice system, with particular focus on the patterns of interaction between black and brown communities and the current criminal justice system, the role of media sensationalism in distorting criminal justice system outcomes, and emerging visions for a better system.
Hosted by UT Office of Multicultural Student Life.
