NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Raymond Santana, an exonerated member of the so-called Central Park Five, announced on Tuesday that he is running for New York City Council. He said that the move is a natural progression after his recent return to his home neighborhood, East Harlem.
“I’ve been in activist work all my life, you know, now it was time for me to use my voice and then try to help my community as best as I can,” Santana told 1010 WINS.
Santana, 50, was one of five Black and Latino teens convicted of the 1989 rape of a white female jogger in Central Park. He was only 14 at the time of his arrest, and served five years in prison for the crime.
The teens were exonerated of the charges in 2002, which led Santana to become a dedicated criminal and social justice advocate, supporting legislation that would protect young people and the wrongly convicted. He built a career as an entrepreneur, running the clothing line Madison NYC, and has traveled the country as a motivational speaker.
Santana recently moved back to East Harlem from Georgia, where he’s been since 2015, and launched his campaign for NYC Council District 8 with the purpose of “[representing] the community where he was born and raised and that stood by him when he was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit,” according to his campaign website.
Once he was home, Santana said he did not like some of the deterioration he saw.
“We know that we have a rat problem, we have potholes all over the place, and so ultimately I just want to unite the people and organize them to make my community safer, affordable and promising,” he said.
Santana intends to rectify these problems with a platform that centers on quality of life improvements, housing for seniors and police-community relations.
Among his opponents in the June primary race are Elsie Encarnacion, chief of staff to the outgoing District 8 representative Diana Ayala, who has held the seat since 2018 and has given Encarnacion her endorsement. Nonprofit lawyer Wilfredo López is also on the ballot.
Santana is looking to recreate the success of Councilman Yusef Salaam, another member of the Central Park Five, who won a neighboring council seat in Harlem in 2023 and stood side-by-side with Santana at last year’s Democratic National Convention.
“I mean, this is my brother, you know, we get falsely convicted in 1989,” Santana said. “I was 14, he was 15, and so we have grew up around each other in advocacy work.”
Santana is also keeping a watchful eye on the tactics of the current White House, noting that President Donald Trump’s efforts toward mass deportation are reminiscent of injustices from his past.
“The roundup of immigrants is happening right before our very eyes, and this is the same community that watched in 1989 when it was the round of a black and brown kids,” Santana said.
In 1989, the Central Park Five confessed to the crime, but later recanted after arguing that their statements were coerced by police and that their rights to counsel and Miranda warnings were violated. Just over a week after the boys began to confess, Trump—an NYC real estate magnate at the time—issued full page advertisements in all four of the city’s major newspapers to called for the boys to face the death penalty.
The eventual 2002 exoneration was prompted by the confession of a convicted rapist and murderer, who said he acted alone in the crime and was linked to it by DNA. The city agreed to a settlement with the Exonerated Five, paying about $1 million for each year they were in prison.
“My community have watched this happen, and they have been supportive,” Santana said. “It’s only right that I extend the favor.”