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Linda Fairstein attended the Central Park Five interrogation
Linda Fairstein, a former American prosecutor turned novelist, was abandoned by her publisher while her role in the wrongful conviction of five teenage girls for the brutal rape of a jogger in 1989 was dismissed.
Black and Hispanic teenagers, known as Central Park Five, were exonerated in 2002.
The new Netflix mini-series When They See Us focused its attention on the case.
It inspired a #AnnulerLindaFairstein movement on social media.
Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, confirmed that he had ended his relationship with the author in the middle of the reaction.
- Trump and his challenge of Central Park Five
"I can confirm that Linda Fairstein and Dutton have decided to end their relationship, we have no other comment," Amanda Walker, Advertising Manager at Dutton, told BBC.
Fairstein is also reported to have resigned from at least two non-profit boards.
She was the highest sex crimes lawyer in Manhattan when the five teenagers were charged with the attack.
The victim, a 28-year-old white banker, was severely beaten, raped, and left for dead in a bush. She had no memory of the attack.
Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise, then aged 14 to 16, were arrested and interrogated for hours without being able to see a lawyer or their parents.
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Reuters
The incident in New York's Central Park (pictured above) has caused racial tension and fears that black teenagers will unleash crime.
They confessed to the crime but retracted afterwards, claiming that their confession was the result of coercion by the police.
Ms. Fairstein observed the interrogation of teenagers conducted in 1989 by another attorney and the police.
She has since claimed that they were not coerced and defended the behavior of the authorities.
The convictions were overturned in 2002 after Matias Reyes, an author of violent and serial offenses, confessed to having committed the attack and claimed to have acted alone.
Reyes confessed from inside the prison, after having "found religion". He is serving a life sentence for raping four women and killing one.
"I was a monster," he said in an interview with the US network ABC. "I have done very bad things to so many people and hurt them in many ways."
The racist case shocked the city and raised fears that black teenage gangs would embark on the war.
In 2014, a US judge approved a settlement of $ 41 million between the five and the city of New York.
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