Bill Perkins

Bill Perkins, who for 24 years as a legislator from Harlem championed his community — by, among other things, challenging Donald J. Trump’s aggressive demand for the death penalty when five teenagers, who were later exonerated, were arrested in connection with a rape in Central Park in 1989 — died on Tuesday May 16 2023 at his home in Manhattan. He was 74. His death was announced by his wife, Pamela Green Perkins. In 1989, when five Black and Hispanic teenagers were charged with the rape of a white jogger in Central Park, Mr. Perkins was among the first Black civic leaders to publicly raise questions about the evidence Perkins also took on Donald Trump, then a wealthy real estate developer. William Morris Perkins was born on April 18, 1949. He won scholarships to the Collegiate School in Manhattan and Brown University where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1972. In 2021, when he was already ailing, he lost a primary to retain his Council seat. In addition to his wife, Mr. Perkins is survived by his children, Kiva Perkins-Watts, Medjha White, William Perkins, Margaret Perkins, Maximilian Perkins and Rebecca Marimutu; his brothers, Gerry, Richard and Michael; and four grandchildren.