Yusef Salaam (right)
Credit: Innocence Project

Yusef Salaam was arrested at the age of 15, along with other African-American and Latino teenagers, and later convicted in connection with the rape and assault of a woman in New York’s Central Park in 1989.

During the high-profile trial, future US president Donald Trump booked full-page newspaper ads calling for the boys to be executed if found guilty.

Mr Salaam and the four other teenagers convicted for the attack — Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — maintained their innocence and became known as the ‘Central Park Five’.

The convictions of all five were vacated in 2002 after a serial rapist who was already serving a lengthy criminal sentence admitted committing the crime alone, which was corroborated by DNA evidence.

After their release, the five exonerated men sued the city of New York for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination and emotional distress. Their lawsuit ended in a $41 million settlement in 2014.

Mr Salaam was elected unopposed as a Democrat for a central Harlem district on New York City Council on Tuesday, having won a primary election by a landslide in June.