People With Criminal Records React to Trump Verdict: ‘Now You Understand’

The New York jury’s decision stirred conflicting emotions, including surprise at the responses of many on the left.

Some Democratic leaders are eager to make former President Donald J. Trump’s new identity as a convicted criminal central to their pitch to voters on why he is unfit for office. At the same time, there has been a movement on the left for years to end the stigma of criminal records and point out grave issues in the country’s legal system.

That is why in the wake of the news last week that a New York jury had found Mr. Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, there were especially complex and personal reactions among the millions of Americans who have also been convicted of felonies.

They debated whether the former president’s convictions made him one of them or only underscored how unlike them he was, and discussed their mixed feelings over hearing an entire country discuss the ramifications of having a rap sheet.

“He’s convicted, so now he’s in our community,” said Rahim Buford, 53, who also has a felony conviction on his record.

Mr. Buford believes that neither Democrats nor Republicans have done enough to address significant parts of America’s criminal justice system that are broken, including wrongful convictions, racial disparities and a rate of imprisonment that far outstrips that of other industrialized nations.

So he wondered if sharing a label with the leader of the Republican Party might not, in some way, help his cause.