Linda Fairstein oversaw the false prosecution of the Exonerated Five and hundreds of other cases.

Demand Manhattan DA Cy Vance reopen and investigate her cases!

John,

Linda Fairstein, responsible for the false prosecution of the 'Exonerated Five' (fka "the Central Park Five) ¹^, oversaw hundreds of cases during her tenure in the Manhattan DA's office. And there's no telling how many of those convictions should be overturned too.

Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise collectively spent 37 years in prison for a crime they did not commit due to Linda's false conviction.²Fairstein used her power as a prosecutor to pursue these false convictions even though there was no physical evidence tying the boys to the rape. This brazen denial of hard facts and evidence calls her judgment into question and the 30 years she wielded unchecked prosecutorial discretion and power. Despite elected officials like Jumaane Williams joining the call for an investigation into her past cases, Manhattan DA Cy Vance is refusing to re-open the cases,³ and just this week released a statement ignoring the calls of families and directly impacted communities that have been calling for him to do his job.

That's why we're joining forces nationally with Justice League NYC, BYP100, Daily Kos, CREDO Action, Vocal-NY, and other partners across the country to demand that DA Cy Vance immediately reopen all of Fairstein’s cases and conduct an independent audit. Ava Duvernay's powerful 4-part series When They See Us⁴ has brought Fairstein's wretched practices back out into the open and sparked new outrage. Prompted by the series, Linda has been forced to step down from the boards of 3 nonprofit organizations, Vassar College, dropped from one of her publishing companies, and have had awards rescinded⁵. It's not enough just to affect Fairstein's ability to profit from this injustice--we have to make sure ALL of her past harms are undone. If there are any other people wrongfully convicted, like the 'Exonerated Five', then we must go back and clear their records. Will you join us in calling on Manhattan DA Cy Vance to do the right thing and review all of Fairstein's convictions?

Sign the petition: Tell the Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance to reopen all of Linda Fairstein's cases.

Linda was a prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s office for 30 years and served as the head of the sex crimes unit where she acted with impunity. As illuminated in Ava Duvernay’s 4-part series, When They See Us, Linda oversaw the Exonerated Five case with very little oversight and there were no lengths she would stop at to secure a conviction. But what's even more troubling is her doubling down more than a decade after the truth was revealed. Even after the true rapist confessed--with DNA evidence matching him to the crime and a thorough investigation illuminating every single place where the DA's office went wrong and that none of the boys' coerced confessions actually matched the facts of the crime--Fairstein still to this day maintains that they were guilty of "something."⁶ This case signals that Linda Fairstein was likely more motivated by racking up racist prosecutions on her record, rather than delivering justice to victims of sex crimes.

Every year, dozens of innocent people are exonerated after false convictions, misused forensic evidence, false confessions, and inadequate defense is brought to light from reopening investigations. We must make every effort and use every opportunity to exonerate and vacate the convictions of the many innocent people. Within the last year alone, more than 100 men and women had their cases exonerated⁷ from reopened investigations and we know there are still hundreds and even thousands of more innocent falsely prosecuted people. By vacating false convictions, we can attempt to restore the livelihood of so many people whose lives were diminished by vicious prosecutors like Linda Fairstein.

What if there are other falsely prosecuted cases that she prosecuted? DA Vance must reopen and investigate Linda's cases NOW.

Since Ava Duvernay's series was released, Linda has already been dropped from her book publisher and resigned from 3 nonprofit board positions, and now we must turn our direction to DA Vance because he has the power to reopen her cases in search of any other false convictions. If he fails to do so, this wouldn't be the first time that DA Vance failed to bring justice to the light. He failed to bring charges against Harvey Weinstein, who sexually assaulted a woman and it was revealed that Weinstein and his lawyers gave DA Vance more than $55,000 in donations after the case was dropped.⁸ In another case, DA Vance failed to bring charges against two of Donald Trump’s children in a high profile real estate scam.⁹ But we can't allow Vance and Fairstein to continue escaping accountability. Vance thinks that this will go away, but we will not back down. If we all stand up together, lift up the voices of families whose loved ones were wrongfully incarcerated, we can build up enough pressure to force his office to re-investigate these cases.

Join us in calling on the Manhattan DA Cy Vance to do the right thing and reopen and investigate all of Linda Fairstein's cases.

Until justice is real,

Clarise, Rashad, Arisha, Scott, Erika, Leonard, Kristen M., Marena, Marybeth, Tamar, Madison, Kristen P. and the rest of the Color Of Change team

References:

1. "When They See Us Sparked a Boycott Against Central Park Five Prosecutor Linda Fairstein". Esquire, 7 June 2019 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/145898?t=9&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

2. "Central Park Five: What to know about the jogger rape case". AM New York, 5 June 2019 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/145899?t=11&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

3. "Manhattan District Attorney Refuses to Reopen Cases Handled by Central Park Five Prosecutor Linda Fairstein". The Root, 18 June 2019 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/147888?t=13&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

4. "Central Park Five Tragedy Reframed in Netflix Series When They See Us". The Innocence Project, 24 May 2019 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/146070?t=15&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

5. "Little, Brown and Dutton drop Linda Fairstein". The Bookseller, 11 June 2019 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/147889?t=17&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

6. "Linda Fairstein Is Still Trying to Take Down the Central Park Five". The Nation, 13 June 2019 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/147909?t=19&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

7. The National Registry of Exonerations, Exonerations By Year, Accessed 21 June 2019 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/147919?t=21&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

8. "New York pols’ strange silence on Cy Vance’s Harvey Weinstein horrors". New York Post, 22 March 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/146122?t=23&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

9. "Why did Cy Vance give Weinstein special treatment?". City and State NY, 4 June 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/146074?t=25&akid=33791%2E4731121%2EUdlEIK

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