In 1989, Yusef Salaam, like many African American teens growing up in New York’s Queens borough, had big dreams of being a hip-hop artist, or maybe a graphic artist. But on April 20 of that year, Salaam, then 15, and four other young black men’s lives were turned upside down. A young woman who had been jogging in Central Park in Manhattan was found early that morning raped and beaten. Salaam, hearing that the police were looking for him, turned himself in, accompanied by his friend Korey Wise, thinking he could convince them of his innocence.
Instead, Salaam, questioned without his parents or a lawyer present, confessed to the crime, as did the other four, including Wise.