Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Raymond Santana was only 14 in 1989 when he and four other Black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully blamed for the rape of a white female jogger. The case of the so-called Central Park Five transfixed New York City, and their conviction later came to be seen as a notorious injustice.Now, more than three decades later, Mr. Santana wants to reintroduce himself to New York — this time as a candidate to help lead the city whose prosecutors once put him in prison.On Tuesday, he will announce that he is running as a Democrat to represent parts of his native East Harlem and the Bronx on the City Council. His platform centers on his own improbable story, but also what he called “the deterioration” of neighborhoods like his that he said are ravaged by rats, drugs and skyrocketing rents.“You look around and see the normal stuff isn’t working,” Mr. Santana, a motivational speaker and activist, said in an interview. “That’s why we need someone who’s outside the system, who can come with a different lens.”Mr. Santana, 50, is hoping to replicate the success of Yusef Salaam, another member of the Central Park Five who won a neighboring Council seat in Harlem in 2023. The two men stood trial together as teenagers, appeared together onstage at last summer’s Democratic National Convention and have been consulting about the race.“I’ve always said those who have been closest to the pain should have a seat at the table,” Mr. Salaam said in an interview. “I think it’s important we stand up to lead, especially in times of the most darkness.”Like Mr. Salaam two years ago, Mr. Santana is likely to face a difficult race. A handful of other Democrats have already filed paperwork to run in the June primary that will almost certainly determine who fills the open seat.Among them are Elsie Encarnacion, the chief of staff to the district’s outgoing representative, Diana Ayala. Ms. Encarnacion has already amassed roughly $160,000 in campaign funds and has the full support of her current boss. Wilfredo López, a nonprofit lawyer with ties to the Council, is expected to have the backing of a well-funded super PAC.Though Mr. Santana has been in the public eye for decades as a defendant-turned-activist, he begins the race with almost no electoral experience and few political connections of the kind that often boost campaigns for local office.He will almost certainly also face questions about his recent out-of-state residency. Beginning in 2015, he said, he lived primarily in Georgia, where he raised a daughter and registered to vote.Mr. Santana said he returned frequently to New York City to visit family and lobby for state legislation meant to protect young people targeted by police. But he said he only moved back to East Harlem full time last year.In the interview, Mr. Santana conceded he was still working out his stances on several issues likely to come before the Council. He also declined to take a position on Mayor Eric Adams, who is facing widespread calls to resign after the Trump administration said it would drop charges against him so he could help carry out its immigration agenda.Mr. Santana did argue that he was uniquely placed to try to improve some intractable problems facing his district: strengthening trust between the Police Department and New Yorkers, inspiring younger residents and pushing for expanded programming to help incarcerated people prepare to re-enter society.He cited various quality-of-life issues like trash and the enduring presence of homeless people on the sidewalks. “The place is called Zombieland,” he said. “Nothing is being done about it.”Parts of Mr. Santana’s story are well known. He was an Afro-Latino teenager living in East Harlem in April 1989 when he, Mr. Salaam and three others were arrested in connection with the violent assault of a woman jogging in Central Park.Mayor Edward I. Koch called the teenagers “monsters.” Donald J. Trump, then a prominent developer, took out several full-page newspaper ads, including in The New York Times, calling for them to face the death penalty.It later became clear that prosecutors used false confessions and inconclusive physical evidence and offered no eyewitness testimony to win convictions. Mr. Santana initially served around five years, then another 20 months for a parole violation. He also served four years on a separate drug charge.The men were exonerated in 2002, after a convicted rapist and murderer confessed to acting alone in the attack. The city later agreed to a settlement, paying Mr. Santana and the others around $1 million for each year they were in prison.In the years after, Mr. Santana turned to activism, traveled the country as a motivational speaker and started a clothing line. This fall, Penguin Random House will publish his illustrated memoir aimed at young adults.Mr. Santana framed running for public office as a natural outgrowth of that work.“To have a community that stood by me when Donald Trump and the rest of the world attacked us,” he said. “They always had my back. So I have to have theirs.”
