{"id":15201,"date":"2020-03-10T15:49:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T20:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/?p=15201"},"modified":"2020-09-29T15:12:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T20:12:12","slug":"not-bitter-but-better-two-members-of-the-exonerated-five-speak-at-und","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/2020\/03\/not-bitter-but-better-two-members-of-the-exonerated-five-speak-at-und\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not bitter, but better’: Two members of The Exonerated Five speak at UND"},"content":{"rendered":"

Their convictions vacated and records cleared, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana asked listeners to support criminal justice reform<\/h4>\n
\"\"
Yusef Salaam (left) and Raymond Santana (center) take the stage at the Chester Fritz Auditorium to talk about their experiences as members of The Exonerated Five, formerly known as the Central Park Five. Moderating the conversation was UND Assistant Professor Tamba-Kuii Bailey (right). Photo by Connor Murphy\/UND Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arrested on charges that would later be overturned; imprisoned for nearly seven years for a rape conviction that would later be vacated; made a figure of worldwide infamy while the real rapist \u2014 as DNA evidence later would confirm \u2014 roamed free; Yusef Salaam had every reason to be filled with hate.<\/p>\n

Instead, here\u2019s how Salaam described his goal, thinking back to when he was imprisoned in the 1980s and 90s:<\/p>\n

Emerge \u201cnot bitter, but better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fighting to do time, and not let time do us,\u201d said Salaam, speaking to about 500 people who\u2019d gathered in the Chester Fritz Auditorium to hear his story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fighting to visualize ourselves coming out of there one day not bitter, but better. \u2026 I would get these letters from my grandmother; they were addressed to Master Yusef Salaam. It was her reminder to me that I was the master of my fate, that I could choose to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salaam and Raymond Santana spoke on the UND campus as members of the Exonerated Five, formerly known as the Central Park Five. The five \u2014 four African Americans and one Hispanic American \u2014 were a group of teenagers who were convicted of the April 19, 1989 rape and attempted murder of Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old white woman, in New York\u2019s Central Park.<\/p>\n

The defendants served 6 to 13 years, but continued to proclaim their innocence while in prison and after being released. Then in 2001, a convicted murderer and serial rapist named Matias Reyes confessed that he\u2019d raped the female jogger and said he\u2019d acted alone.<\/p>\n

Reyes\u2019 DNA matched that found at the scene. This led to the state withdrawing all charges against the Five and vacating their convictions.<\/p>\n

Today, Salaam and Santana are advocates of prison and sentencing reform, especially in regards to police practices that can lead to false confessions and eyewitness misidentifications. They\u2019re also active in the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to exonerate wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing.<\/p>\n

So far, some 367 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 21 who\u2019d been on death row, the project reports.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Some 500 people attended the conversation at the Chester Fritz Auditorium with two members of The Exonerated Five. Photo by Connor Murphy\/UND Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘A naive kid’<\/h4>\n

Back in 1989, 14-year-old Raymond Santana was \u201ca naive kid,\u201d Santana said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves hip-hop, that kid,\u201d he said. \u201cHe loves wearing a certain type of clothing because the girls in his class said he looked cute in it. That was Raymond.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a similar way, Salaam said, \u201cI had a skateboard. You know, my aspiration back then was probably to nail that ollie (a skateboarding trick) when I got home. \u2026 And aside from that, it was really about looking forward to coming home from school and hanging out with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

But fate had other plans, as the Central Park rape case tore through the teens\u2019 lives like an EF5 tornado, wreaking havoc that lasted for decades and effects that linger to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I just have to say that we were convicted based on the color of our skin,\u201d Salaam said. \u201cAll the other stuff was just to seal the deal. Dr. King said that we should judge people based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. But when you look at the way that the system has victimized people in America, sending people who have been marginalized to prison has become as American as apple pie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santana agreed. \u201cWithin the first few weeks of this case, there were 400 articles written about us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The stories \u201cput us in this light so that we looked like animals \u2014 and that\u2019s how it continued, 24\/7 for 2 1\/2 years. \u2026 There were demands from people who said we should be castrated, who sent death threats, who called my house so often that my dad couldn\u2019t answer the phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there\u2019s the element of going into a detention center, where a staff member says, \u2018The whole jail wants to hurt you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, given the force of that buffeting, it would have been easy for teens in those circumstances to fall into vengefulness or fanaticism. So, asked UND assistant professor Tamba-Kuii Bailey<\/a>, who moderated the conversation at the Fritz: why didn\u2019t that happen?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was it that helped you develop into men?\u201d Bailey asked.<\/p>\n

\"\"
“Today, we’re using our story for a higher purpose,” said Yusef Salaam, one of two members of The Exonerated Five who spoke on March 4 on the UND campus. Photo by Connor Murphy\/UND Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From inmates to graduates<\/h4>\n

\u201cFor me,\u201d answered Santana, \u201cit was education.\u201d That started with a GED and continued with college.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there I was in my first semester, and I was on academic probation. Now who goes to prison and goes to college and gets put on academic probation? That was me,\u201d he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I didn\u2019t want to be the first person to get kicked out of college in prison. I didn\u2019t want that distinction.\u201d Santana started taking his studies seriously, and with the help of some key professors, he made it through. \u201cSo for me it was education, 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Salaam\u2019s case, poetry helped. \u201cFor example, here is a poem that I wrote in prison:<\/p>\n

\u201cPrison life in many ways can be likened to the womb. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the life inside becomes stillborn, the womb becomes a tomb.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Armed with that determination, Salaam, too, pursued an education while in prison. \u201cAnd today, we\u2019re using our story for a higher purpose, telling people that we got college degrees. We\u2019re saying that not to impress anyone, but rather, to impress upon everyone that if we were in a place where we were physically in bondage and yet made something of ourselves, then people who are physically free can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2002, the convictions of Santana, Salaam and the other three members of the Central Park Five were vacated. But that news was \u201cwhispered\u201d in comparison with the trumpets that had blared their convictions, Salaam said.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until Ken Burns and his daughter, Sarah, released a documentary on the case in 2012 that attention started to return, this time in a more sympathetic way. \u201cThat\u2019s when things started to shift,\u201d Santana said. \u201cEven before the documentary, there had been pushback. Ken Burns had certain people whom he went to for funding, and some of them didn\u2019t want to fund this film.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after the documentary\u2019s release, \u201ceverything changed,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, 99 percent of the people who walk up to us in New York City say, \u2018I\u2019m sorry. \u2026 I believed the narrative. I thought you guys were guilty. Now, I see that you\u2019re innocent and have been for all this time.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt creates a conversation and makes people want to step up and do more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Moderating the conversation with the two members of The Exonerated Five was Tamba-Kuii Bailey (right), assistant professor in the Department of Education, Health and Behavior Studies at UND. Photo by Connor Murphy\/UND Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Occupy the spaces<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s the feeling Salaam and Santana came to UND to encourage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, people think that when The Exonerated Five come to talk, we\u2019re going to tell you, \u2018Don\u2019t be a police officer. Don\u2019t be a district attorney,\u2019\u201d Santana said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s false. We\u2019re going to tell you to occupy all of those spaces, because if you believe in change, that\u2019s where it has to happen. You have to be strategic and think long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salaam agreed. \u201cThe challenges will come, but never forget the words of the great philosopher: Cardi B,\u201d he said, to laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018Fall down nine times, get up 10.\u2019 That should be our mantra in life. \u2026 You know, the true fight has never been a black-and-white fight. It\u2019s never been on racial terms. When we speak in front of people, we\u2019re always talking in front of the kaleidoscope of the human family.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we need folks to understand that as we move into the future together, symbolically and in the reality of what Dr. King said, we\u2019ll walk hand-in-hand. For we have known that the true fight has always been battling spiritual wickedness in high places. That\u2019s where the true fight\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Their convictions vacated and records cleared, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana asked listeners to support criminal justice reform<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":15141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategic-plan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n'Not bitter, but better': Two members of The Exonerated Five speak at UND - UND Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/2020\/03\/not-bitter-but-better-two-members-of-the-exonerated-five-speak-at-und\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Not bitter, but better': Two members of The Exonerated Five speak at UND - 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