The prosecutor of five teenagers convicted for the brutal rape of a female jogger in 1989 - depicted in Netflix's When They See Us - has left her job at at Columbia Law School. Lawyer Elizabeth Lederer led the prosecution, but in Ava DuVernay's series she is seen expressing doubts about their guilt.
All five were found guilty, but their convictions were vacated after an imprisoned rapist and murderer confessed to the crime. After the series debuted, Fairstein was dropped by her publishers in the U.S. and Britain, as well as her literary and film agency, ICM Partners.Mar 18, 2020
In 1996, while the majority of the Central Park Five were still in prison, Linda began a second career as an author of crime novels. She was still working at the Manhattan D.A.'s office when she published her first novel, Final Jeopardy, which follows fictional New York prosecutor Alexandra Cooper.Mar 19, 2020
Fairstein was dropped by her publisher and resigned from several organizations last year after the series inspired scrutiny over her role in the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of five teenagers of color in the 1990s.Mar 18, 2020
Elizabeth Lederer, who was the lead prosecutor on the case, will not be returning to Columbia Law School as a part-time lecturer this fall, following the fallout from the miniseries. ... (She continues to work in the Manhattan District Attorney's office as a prosecutor.)Jun 13, 2019
Dutton and author Linda Fairstein have terminated their publishing relationship, a representative of the imprint has confirmed. Fairstein is the author of the Alexandra Cooper series of crime novels, as well as the middle grade Devlin Quick Mysteries series.Jun 7, 2019
When They See Us was inspired by and tells the story of the Central Park jogger case from 1989. The case involved Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old investment banker who was raped and assaulted as she went for a jog in Central Park, Manhattan on the night of 19 April 1989.Jun 2, 2020
Felicity HuffmanFairstein was portrayed by Felicity Huffman on the show, which was released in 2019. She figures most prominently in the first episode, where Fairstein is depicted as directing a discriminatory roundup of suspects in Harlem.Aug 9, 2021
In 2003, the five men sued the City of New York for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress; they reached a $41 million settlement with the city government in 2013, and an additional $3.9 million in monetary compensation from the state in 2016.
Wise served 11.5 years in prison for crimes he did not commit. The investigation of the convictions of these five teenagers has raised questions regarding police coercion and false confessions, as well as the vulnerability of juveniles during police interrogations.
Trisha MeiliOn April 19, 1989, 28-year-old Trisha Meili was raped and viciously attacked while jogging in New York City's Central Park. Meili spent 12 days in a coma following the attack, and was so severely disfigured that a friend was able to identify her only by her ring.Sep 20, 2019
Lederer was New York's assistant district attorney in 1990 and still works in the D.A.'s office in Manhattan. “I've enjoyed my years teaching at CLS and the opportunity it has given me to interact with the many fine students who elected to take my classes,” Lederer is quoted as saying in a statement from the school.Jun 13, 2019
Elizabeth Lederer, Prosecutor of Central Park Five, Resigns From Columbia Law. Ms. Lederer was portrayed in the Netflix mini-series “When They See Us” as aggressively prosecuting five black and Latino boys for rape despite doubts about their guilt.Jun 12, 2019
In early June, Fairstein wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the Ava DuVernay series was an “outright fabrication” that attempted “to portray me as an overzealous prosecutor and a bigot, the police as incompetent or worse, and the five suspects as innocent of all charges against them.” (Lederer, meanwhile, resigned her post as a part-time lecturer at Columbia Law School, though she will continue in her role as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office .).
It might be easy to assume that Burns’s and McMahon’s Central Park Five documentary entered into a world that was ripe for outrage over the treatment of the five Harlem teenagers. After all, it was 2012. Barack Obama was seeking reelection.
When the Central Park Five were arrested and charged, the narrative sold to the broader public about them — not just by police or figures like Trump, but by the mainstream media — reads, from the vantage point of 2019, as shocking and dehumanizing.
In one sense, then, the responses of the people who followed the trials in 1990 and the people tweeting #CancelLindaFairstein and signing online petitions in 2019 have one thing in common: They’re influenced by good storytelling.
When They See Us is a powerful drama created by director Ava DuVernay.
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When They See Us tells the story of the 1989 Central Park Jogger Case, a sex crime (and the ensuing criminal proceedings thereof) which captured the attention of New York and national U.S. media.
The Central Park Jogger Case was seen as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s,” the New York Times wrote in 1990, as part of a profile on Meili’s recovery. The case was also viewed as playing into the “race panic” and sensationalism that was going on in New York City.