In 1989, Donald Trump purchased full-page ads in four New York newspapers, including the New York Times, calling for the return of the death penalty after a white jogger was brutally attacked in Central Park. Five Black and Latino teens were arrested for the assault, and after confessions later determined to have been coerced by the police, they were convicted — even though there was no physical evidence linking any of them to the crime.

After the five young men had spent years in prison for a crime they did not commit, their convictions were vacated in 2002 when DNA evidence implicated Matías Reyes, a serial rapist. (In 2022, a sixth teenager who was convicted on a related charge was also exonerated.) Reyes ultimately confessed and provided an accounting of the crime that matched details

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