Trump Demands Death Penalty in $85,000 Ads Against Central Park Five

Two weeks after five Black and Latino teenagers were arrested for the brutal rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park, Donald Trump spent $85,000 to place full-page advertisements in four major New York newspapers calling for their execution. The ads, which appeared in The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, and Newsday, featured inflammatory language under the headline “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”

The Advertisement’s Content

Trump’s ad stated: “These muggers and murderers…should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes,” appearing above his signature. The advertisement made no mention of due process, presumption of innocence, or the possibility that the accused teenagers might not be guilty. Instead, it treated their guilt as established fact and demanded their deaths.

The timing was particularly inflammatory: the teenagers—Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, and Raymond Santana—had not been tried, much less convicted. They ranged in age from 14 to 16 years old. Trump’s advertisement, taken out by one of New York’s most prominent businessmen, created a public presumption of guilt that would poison any possibility of a fair trial.

Impact on the Defendants and Their Families

The advertisements had devastating real-world consequences beyond the courtroom. Yusef Salaam later testified that his family received death threats after Trump’s ads appeared. The teenagers, already facing intense media scrutiny and a racially charged atmosphere in New York City, now had to contend with a wealthy, famous public figure calling for their execution in the city’s most-read newspapers.

The $85,000 Trump spent on the ads (equivalent to approximately $200,000 today) bought not just advertising space but legitimacy for the lynch mob mentality surrounding the case. When a billionaire real estate developer takes out full-page ads demanding execution, it signals to the public, potential jurors, and the criminal justice system that the defendants are guilty and deserve death.

Significance

Trump’s Central Park Five advertisements represent one of the most high-profile instances of a wealthy individual using their resources to inflame public opinion against criminal defendants before trial. The ads violated every principle of due process and presumption of innocence, instead functioning as a modern-day wanted poster calling for execution.

The case would become even more significant 13 years later when DNA evidence and a confession from the actual perpetrator completely exonerated all five men, revealing that they had been coerced into false confessions after hours of interrogation without parents or attorneys present. Trump’s ads had helped send innocent teenagers to prison for a crime they did not commit.

Even after exoneration, Trump would refuse to apologize, doubling down on his certainty of their guilt despite conclusive DNA evidence to the contrary. The Central Park Five case became emblematic of both the racial dynamics of the criminal justice system and Trump’s lifelong pattern of racial animus and refusal to admit error regardless of evidence.