Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 10-1-19

Feature
‘Exonerate Five’s’ Raymond Santana Shares His Story At USF Series
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
On last Sunday, Ray- mond Santana donned a tux and accompanied direc- tor, Ava Duvernay as her guest at the 71st Emmy Primetime Awards in Holly- wood.
The glitz and glamour of Tinseltown was a long way from the grit and grime of New York City, where 30 years ago, the then 14-year- old Santana and four other young men were convicted and sentenced in the rape and beating of a 28-year-old woman jogger in the city’s famed Central Park.
Once dubbed “The Cen- tral Park Five,” the men are now known as “The Exoner- ated Five,” moniker be- stowed on them by a famous media maven after investiga- tions into their convictions proved their innocence.
“It was Oprah who said ‘there will be no more Cen- tral Park Five, you will be the Exonerated Five,’” he told an audience of hundreds re- cently at the University of South Florida. “We were proud to stand out and say this is who we are.”
Before his Emmy appear- ance, Santana visited Tampa last week as part of the university’s lecture series to share his story in a packed auditorium at the Marshall Student Center.
Santana spent five years in jail before his conviction and those of the other young men – Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, and Korey Wise – were over- turned in December 2002, after a lengthy investigation raised questions about false confessions and police coer- cions, according to the Inno- cence Project.
Earlier that same year, convicted rapist and mur- derer, Matias Reyes con- fessed to the crime and DNA evidence corroborated his
Raymond Santana talks about his ordeal as an ‘Exonerate Five’ during University of South Florida Lecture Series.
confession.
But before justice, there
were jeers – from the media, from the public. The teens’ images were plastered all over the news and the trials caused a sensation.
“We were considered the most hated human beings on Earth in 1989,” he said.
When he was released in 1996, he found it tough to ad- just to life outside prison.
He had to obey a 9 p. m. curfew and attend sex of- fender classes – although Santana knew he was inno- cent of sexual assault. If he didn’t attend and participate in the meetings, he was threatened with returning to prison.
At the time, there were no transitional programs to help formerly incarcerated per- sons become re-acclimated to life outside prison. His stepmother thought he was guilty, making life at home difficult, Santana said.
“The place I’m supposed to be safe, I have to walk on eggshells,” he said.
Without a support system to help him stay out of trou- ble, Santana said he soon returned to the streets.
“There was nobody to help me transition, so I suc- cumbed to the pressure,” he said. “I knew that I was going to go back because there was no way I was going to make it.”
After his release, San-
tana said he teamed with the other young men to begin ad- vocating for their justice. They attended rallies and marches, made TV appear- ances, and began social media campaigns to get out their message and connect with supporters.
They also filed lawsuits against the city, but officials refused to pay out. The suits dragged on for years before they were settled for $40 mil- lion under current Mayor Bill de Blasio.
It was a hard-fought bat-
tle, Santana said. “Everything we got from
them, we earned it,” he said. “They didn’t give us nothing for free.”
These days, Santana is a doting father and the founder and owner of fashion business Park Madison NYC.
He also remains heavily involved in social justice is- sues.
“My whole world revolves round criminal justice re- form,” he said. “I didn’t ask for it, it was given to me. I ac- cepted it wholeheartedly.”
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 7