Everyone is talking about Ava DuVernay’s new limited series for Netflix When They See Us, which chronicles the story of the Central Park Five – the young men who were wrongfully convicted of raping a woman in 1989. While many have shown their support for the Central Park Five, viewers have also turned their attention to ex-prosector, Linda Fairstein for her negligence in the case.
Fairstein supervised the prosecution of the Central Park jogger case in 1990, which led to the conviction of five teenagers. Despite evidence that suggested the boys were innocent, Fairstein pushed for the prosecution team to move forward. In light of Netflix’s latest series, many fans have launched the hashtag, #CancelLindaFairstein and have called for the boycott of her books.
One of the Central Park Five, Raymond Santana, said he fully supports this movement. “At the end of the day, people are outraged,” Santana, who served five years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, told TMZ. “In 1989, when all those articles were written about us. There were over 400 articles written about us in the first two weeks of this case. And 90 percent of those articles never mentioned alleged. That was the backlash that we received and now she’s receiving it.”
Santana added: “When you do dirt, you can’t run no matter how long it is, the truth comes out. Even though it’s 30 years later, she has to pay for her crime. Whether it’s in the courtroom or whether it’s socially, it is what it is.”
The Central Park Five – which consists of Kevin Richardson, Antron Mccray, Raymond Santana Jr., Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam – was officially exonerated in 2002. Even so, Fairstein still maintains that she handled everything by the book. In a 2002 interview with The New Yorker, she described the arrests of the suspects as “one of the most brilliant police investigations I’ve ever seen.” Although evidence and a sworn testimony proved that another man by the name of Matias Reyes committed the crime, Fairstein suggested that the Reyes “ran with that pack of kids. He stayed longer when the others moved on. He completed the assault. I don’t think there is a question in the minds of anyone present during the interrogation process that these five men were participants, not only in the other attacks that night but in the attack on the jogger.”
When They See Us is now available to stream on Netflix. Check out Raymond Santana’s full video below.