Another ‘Exonerated 5’ member eyeing a Manhattan City Council seat

Raymond Santana of the Exonerated Five is thinking about running for term-limited City Council Member Diana Ayala’s open seat in East Harlem and the South Bronx.

If he ends up doing so, he’d be following in the footsteps of Central Harlem City Council Member Yusef Salaam who in 2023 soared to victory decades after he was wrongly imprisoned as a teenager in the infamous 1989 “Central Park Five” case. Like Salaam, Santana would mount a potential campaign as a political newcomer in the community he grew up in – and the city that once sentenced him to prison.

While a spokesperson for Santana did not explicitly confirm he was indeed thinking about running for the District 8 City Council seat, they didn’t deny it either. Several other sources connected to politics in Harlem confirmed his interest.  

“Since being exonerated, Raymond Santana has been focused on one thing: supporting the community where he was born and raised. Ray knows that too many kids and families are struggling with soaring rents, crumbling infrastructure, a lack of safe and clean public transit options, and a criminal justice system that has failed to deliver for New Yorkers,” a spokesperson for Santana said in a statement. “Moving forward, Ray is committed to being a part of the solution to our city’s challenges in whatever way possible.”

At 14, Santana was one of five teenagers who were wrongfully convicted in the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park and later exonerated. The case sparked headlines nationwide and highlighted the failings of the criminal justice system. After police honed in and coerced the group of Black and Hispanic boys into confessing – which they later recanted – Santana spent five years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Their convictions were finally overturned in 2002 with DNA evidence and a guilty confession from the true perpetrator. The five men settled with the city for $41 million in 2003.

Santana, now an advocate and activist for prison reform, had been splitting his time living in Atlanta, Georgia, and New York City since 2014, but his spokesperson said he came back to the city full time in 2024. He’s maintained ties to Harlem over the years. In 2018, he launched a clothing line called Park Madison NYC – named for where he grew up on 111th Street between Park and Madison Avenues. Santana also works closely with the Innocence Project and the New York City Justice League. 

In 2022, Manhattan Democratic Party Chair Keith Wright and a few political consultants flew to Stockbridge, Georgia, where Salaam was living at the time to recruit him to run for New York City Council District 9. Asked about Santana and whether he’d been involved in any similar effort to recruit him to run for the neighboring District 8 seat, Wright said he hasn’t spoken to him about potentially running. 

“I have not had the conversations at all, if he’s interested we probably will, but I think he’s very intelligent, he’s very charismatic,” Wright said. “I’m sure he’d make a fine candidate.” 

If Santana ultimately decides to launch a campaign, he’d likely need to do so soon. The City Council District 8 Democratic primary is already well underway. Elsie Encarnacion, Ayala’s chief of staff, has already raised just shy of $130,000, including public matching funds. She’s got the adamant backing of Ayala as well as a handful of other City Council members who’ve donated to her campaign. Wilfredo López, a nonprofit lawyer and the former legislative director and counsel for then-City Council Member Ben Kallos, is poised to carry out a well-funded campaign with the backing of a political action committee. A slew of other candidates are also running, including Bronx Community Board 1 Chair Clarisa Alayeto, Daniel Aulbach-Sidibe, a learning specialist, and community activist Nicholas Reyes. 

Assembly Member Eddie Gibbs, a Wright ally, had initially filed to run for the seat, but has since said he no longer plans to run.