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Yusef Salaam: How to reform the US criminal justice system

Poet and activist Yusef Salaam on the chance of real change in the US criminal justice system.

Yusef Salaam was just 16 when he and four other black and Latino teenagers were wrongly convicted of the rape and assault of a woman jogging in New York鈥檚 Central Park. Even before their trial the then property tycoon Donald Trump took out newspaper ads calling for the death penalty. The five served out their sentences before being exonerated when another man admitted to the crime. Yusef Salaam says their case is the story of the criminal system of injustice in America. But as anti-racism protests continue, and fears of worse unrest to come, is the chance of real change even more remote than in the America of his youth?

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23 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Mon 28 Sep 2020 07:06GMT
  • Mon 28 Sep 2020 14:06GMT
  • Mon 28 Sep 2020 15:06GMT
  • Mon 28 Sep 2020 21:06GMT

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