After the release of Ava DuVernay’s four-part series When They See Us, which chronicled the lives of five boys black and brown boys wrongfully convicted of raping a white female jogger, former New York prosecutor turned crime author Linda Fairstein merited the ire of all those who watched.
Fairstein stepped down from many positions including the board at Vassar College and Columbia Law school. However, supporters of the exonerated five–Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, and Yusef Salaam,–demanded a magnifying glass be taken to all her old cases.
CNN reports the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance responded in a letter that he does not plan to reopen Fairstein’s old cases. Fairstein acted as the chief over the sex crimes unit from 1976 to 2002.
“I do not intend to take either action at this time. Instead, I seek your help in publicizing to New Yorkers the availability of my Office’s Conviction Integrity Program process,” Vance wrote in a letter Friday.
After Vance revealed Fairstein’s cases would remain as is, advocate Jumaane Williams said Vance is potentially denying innocent men and women a second chance at life.
“Justice delayed is justice denied, but here, Cy Vance is even denying justice has been delayed. It shouldn’t take another 30 years for us to find out why DA Vance refuses to correct these injustices of the past,” Williams tweeted.
