New York City honors five men wrongfully convicted of rape by naming Central Park gate after them

New York City's Public Design Commission unanimously approved naming a gate in Central Park to honor the five men who were wrongfully convicted as teenagers of the 1989 rape of a jogger and spent years in prison before being exonerated.

After a three-year effort, "Gate of the Exonerated" will be placed at the park's northern end following the commission's decision Monday, NBC New York reported.

"This gate of the exonerated will be ... the first of its kind within the United States and possibly in the world that speaks to the idea of exoneration of people," said Sharonne Salaam, whose 15-year-old son Yusef Salaam was among the five minority men convicted.

Other members of the Central Park Five include Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson, who were both 14 at the time, Antron McCray, who was 15, and then 16-year-old Korey Wise. The men's convictions were thrown out in 2002. A 28-year-old white woman was left with permanent damage and without memory of the assault, which was later linked to murderer and rapist Matias Reyes.