AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show with a New York city councilmember who just spoke in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. He’s Yousef Salaam, one of the teenagers from Harlem more than 35 years ago — four African American, one Latino — who in 1989 were wrongfully accused and convicted of raping and nearly killing a 28-year-old white investment banker who was out for a jog in Central Park. In the sensational trial that followed, the young men became known as the Central Park Five.

Donald Trump spent $85,000 on full-page ads in four newspapers with the headline “Bring Back the Death Penalty. Bring Back Our Police!” The ad read, in part, quote, “Mayor Koch has stated that hate and rancor should be removed from our hearts. I do not think so. I want to hate these muggers and murderers,” the ad said.

During the trial, the teens maintained their innocence, but in 1990, they were convicted. Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana served between six and seven years in prison. Korey Wise, the only teenager tried as an adult, served more than 13 years.

Their story was captured in the four-part Netflix series written and directed by Ava DuVernay called When They See Us.

Well, on Thursday, the night that Kamala Harris spoke, before that, four members of the exonerated Central Park Five were introduced by Reverend Al Sharpton as they appeared on the stage at the DNC: Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and now New York City Councilmember Yusef Salaam. Two of them spoke, Yusef Salaam, but, first, Korey Wise.

KOREY WISE: We won’t go back! … Good evening, people. My name is Korey Wise. Thirty-five years ago, my friends and I were in prison for a crime we did not commit. Our youth was stolen from us. Every day as we walked into courtroom, people screamed at us, threatened us, because of Donald Trump. He spent $85,000 on a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for our execution. We were innocent kids, but we served a total of 41 years in prison. Reverend Al Sharpton stood with us. Now I’m proud to stand with him today. Vice President Kamala Harris has also worked to make things fairer. I know she will do the same thing as president. And I approve that message.

YUSEF SALAAM: I love these guys. These are my brothers. These are my brothers. Yes, indeed. America, I am Yusef Salaam, a New York city councilman representing my hometown of Harlem. That’s right, representing my hometown of Harlem, U.S.A.

And listen, as my friend Korey Wise just said, 45 wanted us unalive. He wanted us dead. Today, we are exonerated, because the actual perpetrator confessed, and DNA proved it. That guy says he still stands by the original guilty verdict. He dismisses the scientific evidence rather than admit he was wrong. He has never changed, and he never will. That man thinks that hate is the animating force in America. It is not.

We have the constitutional right to vote. In fact, it is a human right. So let us use it. I want you to walk with us. I want you to march with us. I want you to vote with us. And together — and let me tell you, this is going to be so beautiful. And together, on November 5th, we will usher in Kamala Harris and Tim Walz into the White House.

So, I want to do this. When I say, “When they,” I want you to say, “See us.” When they…

AUDIENCE: See us!

YUSEF SALAAM: When they…

AUDIENCE: See us!

YUSEF SALAAM: When they see us, America will finally say goodbye to that hateful man. We will say what I have said after seven long years on wrongful incarceration: Free at last. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! God bless you, and God bless the United States of America!

AMY GOODMAN: Two of the members of the exonerated Central Park Five on stage at the Democratic National Convention. That was New York City Councilmember Yusef Salaam and, before him, Korey Wise. Donald Trump wanted them dead.

This comes as The Intercept's Liliana Segura reports the Democratic Party's platform this year no longer includes ending capital punishment, the death penalty, a goal enshrined in the party’s platform for years.

For more, we are joined by Yusef Salaam, representing Harlem.

Yusef, welcome back to Democracy Now! As you come off of the Democratic National Convention, your thoughts on what’s happening today? You all — it was very significant that the four of you were there. You have won a, what, $50 million settlement from New York City. You were exonerated. What was Donald Trump’s response to your exoneration, given he had taken out this full-page ad calling for your death?

YUSEF SALAAM: My gosh. You know — well, first of all, thank you for having me. It is always a pleasure to be in conversation with you.

Donald Trump has always stood by his original idea that we had to be guilty of something. As a matter of fact, I remember him saying just those very words: “They had be guilty of something.” The reality was that we were guilty of the color of our skin. They had judged us by how we looked, and not the content of our character.

Right now our country is in a very pivotal moment, where the whole world is feeling the vibrations. And I think that is really a beautiful thing, because we get the opportunity to really understand how democracy is on the ballot right now, that if Donald Trump wins, he’s going to turn this into a dictatorship. He is going to turn us back to a state where we were considered chattel slavery. But if Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are in the White House, we get the opportunity to plan in safety. We get the opportunity to build a future that is brighter, more successful, that is inclusive, that allows for, I believe, the United States of America to be the real reality as opposed to where we are right now, divided and ununited.

AMY GOODMAN: The story of the Central Park Five is just astonishing. And I had a direct connection to it, aside from reporting on it. But Matias Reyes, the man who confessed and whose DNA matched, after you all were imprisoned for so many years, the last woman he raped, he raped in my building. She ran out of the building screaming. The doorman jumped on him.

YUSEF SALAAM: My gosh.

AMY GOODMAN: And that’s how he was caught. But this is the — this is the price of racism, because after you all were arrested, Matias went on to beat and rape five women, murdering one of them, Lourdes Gonzalez, a pregnant mother of three. And it was only him coming forward — right? — to one of you that led to you all being exonerated. He admitted his crime. His MO was the same all through the north of Central Park, but they never, for months, said there is this — when you were all jailed at this point — there is this killer — 

YUSEF SALAAM: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — there is this rapist on the loose with the same MO, what they did to Patricia Meili, the stoning and rape of her.

YUSEF SALAAM: That’s right. You know, that’s the collateral effect of getting it wrong. We want to be a country, I believe, that believes that the justice system works, and works well. But the problem is that we became what I call the modern-day Scottsboro Boys. Donald Trump was allowed to take out those full-page ads in New York City’s newspapers in 1989, two weeks after we were accused, and essentially calling for the death penalty to be reinstated in our case. They published our names, phone numbers and addresses. They were so angry at us, believing that we were capable of something as such, that they wanted to exact justice by any means necessary.

The collateral effect of that was that the real perpetrator was left to commit more crime. That’s what happens often when they get it wrong. The real person is out there committing more crime. Our families, our supporters, our loved ones said, “You have the wrong individual.” And guess what happened. They said, “No, we think we have the right one,” allowing for the real criminal to continue to hurt, to maim and also kill his victims.

This was a travesty of justice. This is why we need change. This is why we need reform. We need to be able to make sure, in fact, that the justice system works. And we don’t want people who are in prison to be in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. We don’t want people to be murdered for crimes they didn’t commit. Like, right now we have the capital punishment throughout the nation that is still exacting souls and sending them to early graves, when the truth of the matter is that when we look at DNA evidence, many of these individuals are actually innocent. I’m thinking about Troy Davis. I’m thinking about countless others.

AMY GOODMAN: So —

YUSEF SALAAM: We were out here fighting for them. Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Yusef, the Democratic National Committee has removed abolishing the death penalty from the platform. In 2016, the platform read, “We will abolish the death penalty, which has proven to be a cruel and unusual form of punishment. It has no place in the United States of America.” Very quickly, your thoughts on that removal of the death penalty abolition?

YUSEF SALAAM: I think that we may be able to push forward to get that reinstated. And I’m saying that it’s a travesty to send people to prison for — I mean, to send people to jail, jail and also their death, for crimes they didn’t commit. When I look at what happened to us, I can’t help but think — you know, Korey Wise says it all the time. He says it really the best. He says, “Had Matias Reyes not come forward, I would have been living a 15-to-life jail sentence.” He would have still be in prison. They would have never let him go. That’s how much they wanted us. They wanted this thing to be that, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, we just have 30 seconds. You’re in the car now driving. I can’t even believe we’re talking to you as you sit in the passenger seat. But you’re a New York city councilmember.

YUSEF SALAAM: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: You were elected to the New York City Council. And Donald Trump has become a felon, was convicted of —

YUSEF SALAAM: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — well over a dozen felonies. Your thoughts?

YUSEF SALAAM: You know, here’s a person who, if he was Black, he would not be able to run for public office. If he looked like me, he wouldn’t even be able to vote. But here he is in the highest office of the land, telling people that he is going to allow for immunity for the things that he has done. Really, this is the erasure of what we see as the American justice system. Those things that actually work, we need those things. We need those things to be and to stay a part of the system. We do not need people to run over the justice system and create new ideas and imaginations of what is unfortunate and what is criminal.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you —

YUSEF SALAAM: That is criminal. He is a criminal.

AMY GOODMAN: — so much for being with us. Again, President Trump convicted of 34 felonies. That does it for our show. Yusef Salaam now a New York city councilmember. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.