Another member of Harlem’s Exonerated Five is trying his hand at politics. Raymond Santana Jr., 50, announced he is running in City Council’s District 8 race last week. He sat down with Amsterdam News to talk about his past, platform, and plans.
On a recent frigid afternoon, Santana was at El Barrista cafe in East Harlem, wearing one of his white “Drafted By God” hoodies from his clothing brand, Park Madison NYC, that he started in 2018.
“I always been a sketch artist since I was yea’ high. Loved to draw cartoon characters, Marvel characters. I started out doing stick figures. For me, it’s always been a passion, so when I became an activist, it was only right that I used that medium to get that message across,” said Santana.
He’s running for District 8, which encompasses Mott Haven, Melrose, and Concourse Village in the South Bronx; Carnegie Hill, Yorkville, and East Harlem in Manhattan; and Randall’s Island. Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala, who is term-limited, is the current councilmember. Santana has no shortage of competition: Several prominent candidates are running to replace her, including Ayala’s chief of staff, Elsie Encarnacion; lawyer Wilfredo López; Bronx Community Board Chair Clarisa Alayeto, and Community Board 11 member Nicholas Reyes.
“For me, when I looked at my community, I see all the harsh conditions that my community goes through when it comes to things like the trash on the street, public safety, and affordable housing. It’s a long list of things that plague this community,” said Santana. “[They’re] in a place where there’s no faith, there’s no hope.”
His main priorities are affordable housing, especially for seniors; pooling mental health and street homelessness resources; improving sanitation; supporting youth and education, and public safety. He said the primarily Hispanic and Latino district also feels “under siege” with rising anti-immigrant sentiments in the city, and the constant threat of detainment or deportation from the federal level and President Donald Trump, who has a long-standing contentious relationship with the Exonerated Five.
“You got people who are just trying hard to make a dollar and now they fear that they’re gonna be deported or they’re gonna be snatched up in the middle of the night,” said Santana.
He can relate viscerally to such fears. An East Harlem native, Santana was 14 years old, attending Junior High School 117 (now closed), when he and several young friends were wrongfully tried and convicted in the Central Park jogger rape case in 1989. The case involved a 28-year-old white woman, banker Trisha Meili, who was brutally attacked and raped in the park while jogging. She survived with no memory of what happened. NYPD officers had already rounded up a group of Black and Brown boys (among them were Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Korey Wise, and Santana) in relation to a series of other attacks perpetrated in the park that night by youths, according to the Innocence Project.
Ariama C. Long photos
Santana on campaign trail, interacting with East Harlem residents. 
Exonerated 5’s Raymond Santana Jr., a City Council candidate, in 117th community garden in East Harlem. 
Exonerated 5’s Raymond Santana Jr. with his father, Raymond Santana Sr., at 117th community garden in East Harlem. 
Exonerated 5’s Raymond Santana Jr. in 117th community garden in East Harlem
After hours of questionable police interrogations, the teens, with the exception of Salaam, made taped confessions to the crime. Five were found guilty of rape, assault, and burglary despite no matching physical evidence. Santana was tried as a juvenile and sentenced to five to 10 years in 1990. He served five years, and was released on parole at the age of 20.
While incarcerated, he earned his General Educational Development (GED) and an associate’s degree, thinking that would help him with employment opportunities. However, he struggled to get a job with the stigma of a conviction and being labeled a sex offender following him. He also had a “strained” relationship with his family, especially his father, Raymond Santana Sr., at that time. He said his father was a straitlaced, hard-working man who had never served any time and couldn’t relate to what his son was going through.
“The criminal justice system had a hold on me that I just couldn’t get loose,” said Santana. After failing to adhere to the terms of his parole, Santana said he spent an additional 20 months locked up. It was at this point that he hit “rock bottom,” feeling like he had “given up.” Spiraling, Santana was arrested on a drug charge in 1998, admitted guilt, and was convicted again.
Matias Reyes admitted he was responsible for the Central Park jogger rape in 2002. Santana was released and all of the Central Park Five convictions were overturned. He received about $7.125 million out of a $41 million settlement with the city in 2014. Their story was captured in Ava DuVernay’s miniseries on Netflix, “When They See Us,” in 2019.
“My life has been an open book since 1989, and so we continue to leave it that way because we’re not hiding [and] we’re not afraid,” said Santana about campaigning. “The judgment has been passed on us and we’re still standing at the end of the day, so that’s the testament to our strength. We’ve been called the worst labels: urban terrorists, wolf pack, super-predator, wilding. How much worse can it get?”
His core lesson and message, Santana said, is that “I would have to tell my younger self [to] just keep moving forward, keep pushing forward, don’t give up.”
His “Brotherhood” T-shirt and hoodie collection is dedicated to his fellow members of the Exonerated Five. It simply reads: “Yusef, Kevin, Antron, Korey, & Raymond.”
Since 2004, Santana has been an outspoken criminal justice advocate and public speaker with the Innocence Project and a member of the New York City Justice League. The Innocence Project has pushed legislation in several states to ban deceptive police tactics during the interrogation of minors and mandate the recording of interrogations to prevent wrongful convictions based on false confessions. In the entrepreneurial arena, Santana has also produced a documentary about exoneree Kirk Bloodsworth, who was the first person to escape death row due to DNA evidence in the U.S.
He maintained a residence in Atlanta, Ga., with his only daughter, but has said he split his time between there and New York City since 2014. He briefly married and divorced Flavor of Love star Chandra “Deelishis” Davis around 2021. His campaign said he currently lives in the district on 125th Street.
Santana knows he’s not a “politician” in the traditional sense. Essentially, he’s following in the footsteps of his friend Salaam, who is the councilmember in the nearby District 9 and chairs the council’s committee on public safety. Santana said that he “sees the success and change” Salaam is bringing to Central Harlem, and is excited about the prospect of partnering with him.
Around the corner from the cafe, Santana’s father was tending to the community garden and its nine cats on 117th Street. The garden’s building has a dedication to his son. Together, they speak to potential voters passing by.
Santana’s campaign said that their fundraising report will be out on March 17 with the city’s New York City Campaign Finance Board (NYCCFB) filing. They are also in the process of collecting signatures to get his name on the ballot in June’s primary.
[updated Mon, March 24]