Linda Fairstein was dropped from her book publisher, as the rightful backlash against the Central Park Five prosecutor turned crime novelist continues to grow in wake of Ava DuVernay’s four-part mini series, When They See Us.
Dutton books, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, terminated their relationship with Fairstein, who for more than two decades worked as chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of Manhattan’s district attorney’s office, which included her work in wrongfully convicting the Central Park Five.
“Linda Fairstein and Dutton have decided to terminate their relationship,” the book publisher confirmed Friday (June 7), according to Buzzfeed.
Despite parting ways, Fairstein’s crime novels remain for sale on the Penguin Random House website. The site lists her as “America’s foremost legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence.”
When They See Us details Fairstein’s key role in building a false case around, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Jr. and Korey Wise, five innocent black and latino boys coerced into false confessions and subsequently convicted of gang raping a white woman in Central Park in 1989. The convictions were vacated in 2002 after Matias Reyes, a convicted serial rapist and murderer, admitted to the brutal sexual assault.
Fairstein, 72, called DuVernay’s Netflix series “a basket of lies.”
Aside from being dropped from her publisher, the New York Times best-selling author resigned from her respective positions on the boards of Vassar College and two nonprofits, earlier in the week. Glamour magazine also stripped Feinstein of the Woman of the Year Award given to her more than 20 years ago, and Columbia University could be next in line to revoke an award.
Columbia’s Black Student Union launched a petition calling for the school to revoke the Award for Excellence given to Fairstein by Columbia’s School of Medicine. The petition also demands that, Elizabeth Lederer, the lead prosecutor in the Central Park Five case, step down from her position at Columbia University Law School.