NORTH CHARLESTON, South Carolina — Tom Steyer teased an announcement of support for his criminal justice plan from one of the men exonerated in the 1980s Central Park jogger case.
“And, by the way, I think one of the Central Park Five is going to endorse our criminal justice program,” the billionaire Democratic presidential hopeful said at a campaign event on Thursday, speaking to a predominantly black audience of about 60 people.
The Central Park Five were black and Latino teenagers who were convicted for charges relating to the rape and assault of a 28-year-old white woman, Trisha Meili, in 1989 despite no physical evidence linking them to the crime. Each had confessed but then retracted and pleaded not guilty. They were each exonerated in 2002 after Matias Reyes, who was already serving life in prison for murder and rape, confessed to the crime and his DNA matched that found at the scene.
The men then sued New York City for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress. Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, now a Democratic presidential candidate, said he thought that the city could win in court against the men, but, after Mayor Bill de Blasio came into office, the city settled in 2014 for $41 million. The stories of the men — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise — were featured in the 2019 Netflix series When They See Us.
When the original case was being litigated, President Trump, then a real estate developer, purchased full-page ads in New York newspapers with a headline that read, “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE.” Trump has refused to apologize to the five men.
It is not clear which of the exonerated men Steyer was referring to or whether the endorsement would be of Steyer’s candidacy as a whole or only the criminal justice reform portion of his platform. The five men and Steyer’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
His plan calls for $100 million in Department of Labor reentry employment opportunity grants, eliminating the death penalty, legalizing marijuana, ending cash bail, eliminating court fees, and providing $100 million for public defender offices, among other goals.
As for the Central Park Five figures, representatives with Yusef Salaam said, “Yusef has not endorsed a candidate, and has no plans to do so today. Whoever Yusef decides to support will align with his goals of giving formerly incarcerated individuals their voices back. His experience made him realize how incarcerated individuals can lose their voice, and how hard it is to find it again.”
Steyer on Thursday stressed that his commitment to addressing racial disparities goes far beyond dealing with criminal justice issues.
“Climate justice is racial justice. Economic justice. You can’t look at a policy area in the United States, honestly, without recognizing that there’s a huge racial subtext to it. And if you don’t deal with the racial subtext, you’re not going to deal with the policy issue,” Steyer said. He said that criminal Justice has “a huge racial component to it from start to finish,” but, “So is there in housing.”
Though Steyer is in the single digits in national polls, he is in third place with 14.5% support in the RealClearPolitics average of South Carolina polls due in part to his popularity with black voters in the state.
