“Since the day we were wrongfully arrested, others controlled the story about us without ever seeing us,” Salaam, now an Innocence Project board member, said before presenting When They See Us director Ava DuVernay with the Freedom and Justice award at the 2019 Innocence Project gala.

“The prosecutors, the police, the media, the people of New York …. Donald Trump—they created a lie that suited them and erased us. For 30 years, we’ve fought to take back our story. Now, through Ava DuVernay, we see it brought to life for a whole new world to see.”

Since all five men were exonerated by DNA evidence in 2002, their case has illuminated police coercion tactics with young people, youth vulnerability to false confessions, and the profound dangers of media bias and racial profiling.

We encourage you to watch the series now out on Netflix, and learn more below about McCray, Richardson, Santana, Salaam and Wise and the legal system failures that contributed to their wrongful convictions and continue to deny the presumption of innocence to many young black and Latino youth today.

BET Honors the Exonerated Five at Award Ceremony