Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday used the national presidential election debate to emphasize his decades-long stance on the Central Park Five, the group of exonerated black and Hispanic teenagers who were wrongly convicted of a brutal 1989 rape and sexual assault.

In the second half of the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris cited the infamous full-page ad Trump took out in New York City newspapers after the attack, in which Trump called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York.

Harris, a Democrat, said Trump’s ad called for “the execution of five young black and Hispanic boys who were innocent.”

Trump, in turn, accused Harris of being “divisive,” before claiming that “many people, including Mayor Bloomberg, agreed with me on the Central Park Five.”

“They admitted it,” Trump said. “They said they pleaded guilty. And I said, well, if they had pleaded guilty, they would have seriously injured the person, ultimately killed him. … Then they pleaded, ‘We’re not guilty.'”

Trump’s statement contained several untruths.

The Central Park Five actually pleaded not guilty; they were convicted at trial after making confessions that were ultimately proven false. All five men — including current New York City Councilman Yusef Salaam — had their convictions overturned in 2002, thanks in part to DNA evidence.

The victim of the attack was beaten and left in a coma, but she was not killed.

And Trump’s reference to Bloomberg’s support was not clear. The mayor at the time of the attack was Ed Koch, whom Trump criticized in his ad. Bloomberg was mayor from 2002 to 2013. His administration did fight a civil rights lawsuit brought against the city by the Central Park Five, which former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration eventually settled.

Trump’s full-page ad has also appeared during his previous presidential campaigns.

The ad, which appeared in The New York Times and elsewhere, did not explicitly mention the Central Park case. However, it was published at a time when the teens were beginning to make false confessions.

“Bring back the death penalty,” the ad read in bold letters. “Bring back our police!”

Trump has repeatedly refused to apologize for the ad, saying in 2019 that the teens “admitted their guilt,” according to The New York Times.

Salaam, a Democrat from Harlem, was elected to his seat on the City Council last year. He spoke at this year’s Democratic National Convention along with three other members of the exonerated Central Park Five and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“(Trump) rejects the scientific evidence instead of admitting he was wrong,” Salaam said. “He has never changed and he never will.”