Trump refuses to apologize for ad urging execution of the Central Park 5

President Donald Trump refused Tuesday to apologize for the full-page ad he ran in 1989 calling for the execution of the Central Park Five and suggested the men might still be guilty, even though they were exonerated years ago.

Ten days after the brutal rape and beating of a female jogger in Central Park, Trump, then a real estate developer in Manhattan, took out a full-page ad in four New York City newspapers demanding the death penalty be reinstated for the five teenage boys of color arrested for the crime.

Two weeks after the May 1 ad was published — and 10 days before the boys were indicted — Trump was questioned by Larry King on his calls to renew the death penalty. Trump said he was perturbed by those who asked if he had compassion for “these young men that raped and beat and mugged and everything else.”

"I said of course I hate these people, let's all hate these people, maybe hate is what we need if we're going to get something done," Trump told King. "It's incredible when a reporter asks me if I had compassion for the people who did this crime. I have absolutely no compassion."

Years later, the men were exonerated by DNA evidence and another man’s confession. The story is back in the news with a new Netflix miniseries, When They See Us, focused on the boys who were wrongfully convicted and served between six and 16 years of their young adulthood in jail.

April Ryan, a White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, tweeted at the president early Tuesday asking if he'd apologize to the five men. Then, as the president left the White House for his reelection kickoff rally in Orlando, Ryan asked him in person.

“Why do you bring that up now? It’s an interesting time to bring that up,” Trump responded. “You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt. … Some of the prosecutors think the city should never have settled that case and we’ll leave it at that.”

Trump has never apologized for his role in exacerbating the heightened emotions of the case. Several weeks before the 2016 election, Trump gave a similar answer to CNN, noting that the boys, who at the time of their convictions were 14 through 16 years old, had admitted guilt.

The boys have said they were coerced by police to do so.

Yusef Salaam, one of the five, wrote a Washington Post essay in 2016 shortly after Trump doubled down on his contention that they were guilty of the crime.

“Trump has never apologized for calling for our deaths,” Salaam wrote. “It’s further proof of Trump’s bias, racism and inability to admit that he’s wrong.”