Raymond Santana of 'Exonerated 5' in Houston shining light on wrongful convictions

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - They were once five of the most hated people in the country. In fact, President Trump, at the time, took out an ad calling for the death penalty when the five teens were arrested for raping and attacking a Central Park jogger. 

They became known as the Central Park 5 and now the Exonerated 5. One of them is here in Houston working with a local business owner to help stop wrongful convictions.

Raymond Santana knows all too well the pain and trauma of spending years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He will be speaking at Houston's Buffalo Soldiers Museum to shine light on a problem plaguing the nation. 

"Wrongful convictions happen all the time," says Santana.

While most people have home movies to reflect on days gone by, Raymond Santana's reminder of childhood is documented all too well in news footage and mugshots. 

"You find yourself missing a lot of things. For me that whole childhood is gone. My dad was supposed to be teaching me how to fill out a job application or how to take a girl on a date. Instead I was in prison," he said.

Santana was only 14 years old when he and four other boys were sent to prison, wrongfully convicted of brutally raping the Central Park jogger. Even once released from behind bars in 2002, it is taking time for them to be free. 

"I would shower with my boxers on. I would eat my food in 2.5 seconds. Even my room. My room at my dad's house was really small. It was the size of a cell and I would stay in there constantly with the door closed," he says. "I used to love to read comic books. Now I have stacks of comic books in my office and somebody will go you're a 45-year-old man you still read comic books? But that's that part of me that was lost and I try to regain it."

Santana is in Houston highlighting the issue of wrongful convictions at a charity event and beauty expo of all things, put on by SWAG Essentials owner, Houston's own Lydia Evans. 

"It is bringing the beauty of beauty, the fun stuff and the exciting piece but it's fusing it with the ugly truths of society right now that we need to face and talk about," says Evans.

Money is being raised to benefit the Innocence Project of Texas. 

"I look at social media. People do so much talking but when it comes time for action it's like crickets, where are you?" asks Evans.

"People get locked up, and they're being falsely convicted on a daily basis. It happens all the time," adds Santana. 

This member of the Central Park 5 turned Exonerated 5 is now 100 percent activist and is speaking out about it every chance he gets, to keep it from happening to any other child. 

You can see Santana speak at the Sanaa Expo, Saturday October 5, 2019 from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Houston's Buffalo Soldiers Museum at 3816 Caroline Street.