THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE—REALITY AND OPERA PART 1

FOR THOSE WITH POOR MEMORIES, LIVING UNDER A ROCK, OR FOLLOWING SOLELY MAGA SOURCES, the Central Park Five, known today as the Exonerated Five, may require telling: It’s an egregious example of systemic racism only eventually brought to justice. Here in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow are tidbits gleaned from a variety of sources about its reality and its operatic interpretation.

Image by Jay Dobkin from Wikipedia. 

One of New York City’s Central Park entrances is now named the Gate of the Exonerated, described as paying “homage to all those who have been wrongly convicted of crimes and was directly inspired by ‘The Exonerated Five.’ ”

A key point noted on the sign: “Before charging the boys, the NYPD extensively interrogated them for several days, often excluding their parents and never with legal representation present. Written and video statements made by four of them under these conditions were subsequently retracted as coerced.”

Another notation: “The actual assailant confessed to the crime, and DNA testing corroborated his confession. On December 19, 2002, [13 years after the crime] the Supreme Court of the State of New York vacated the now-adult men’s convictions.” 

It also inspired Anthony Davis, composer of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, to write The Central Park Five which won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Wikipedia describes, “The opera’s large cast includes the five teenagers; five of their parents; Matias Reyes, the serial rapist ultimately proven to be the actual perpetrator; the prosecutor; a generic detective referred to as ‘The Masque’; and even Donald Trump, then a New York real estate developer, who published multiple full page newspaper ads demanding ‘Bring back the death penalty!’ ”

A full-page advertisement was taken out by Donald Trump in the May 1, 1989, issue of the Daily News. Image via Wikipedia.

The 2024 Presidential Election. On August 23, 2024, the Exonerated Five spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago about how “Donald Trump spent $85,000 on a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for their execution.” 

Video from The New York Times.

Trump “dismisses the scientific evidence, rather than admit he was wrong,” said Yusef Salaam, now a member of the New York City Council. “He has never changed, and he never will.”

Trump’s Subsequent Weave. What’s more, and despite the 2002 exoneration, AP News reported “Trump Misrepresents Key Facts of the Central Park Five Case” during the debate with Kamala Harris, September 10, 2024.

Image from AP News.

“Trump wrongly stated,” reported AP News, September 11, 2024, “that the victim was killed and that the wrongly accused suspects had pleaded guilty. Trump appeared to be confusing guilty pleas with confessions that the men—teenagers at the time—said they made to police under duress. They later recanted, pleaded not guilty in court and were convicted after jury trials. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.” DNA testing matched him to the attack, but, AP notes, “because of statute of limitations he could not be charged in connection with it.”  

The Five’s Defamation Case Against Trump. As recently as April 11, 2025, AP’s Marc Levy reports, “Judge Refuses to Dismiss Central Park Five’s Defamation Case Against President Trump.”

The Exonerated Five, clockwise from top left, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Korey Wise and Kevin Richardson. Images from AP.

Tomorrow in Part 2, we move forward to Detroit Opera’s coming production of The Central Park Five and a curious (should I say perilous?) aspect of its reporting. 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025