Source: Xilla Valentine / GlobalGrind
Ava DuVernay had a goal of educating our generation of how we are seen with her 2019 Netflix ‘When They See Us’. Her other Netflix award winning hit ’13th’ was a perfect segue to the injustice that was served to 5 teenage boys, who during a time were referred to as the Central Park Five. After robbing the 5 young men of their teenage years, they are now referred to as the ‘Exonerated 5’.
Back when this witch hunt was at its height in New York, Donald Trump, before being elected president, took out a full page add calling for the death penalty for these young men and even going so far to list their names, address and phone numbers in the add. Add’s that caused the families of these young men to receive death threats and some to loose their jobs.
However ironically enough as horrific the injustice that’s was bestowed upon Kevin Richardson, Antron Mccray, Raymond Santana Jr., Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam. The prosecutor that handled their case Linda Fairstein, decided to file a defamation lawsuit in 2020 against Netflix and Ava DuVernay because she felt she was unfairly portrayed as a racist villain in the series.
It is now 2024 and after millions have been spent on the case, Linda Fairstein and Netflix have reached a settlement right before they were scheduled to go to court on June 10th.
In the settlement, Netflix agreed to donate $1 million to the Innocence Project and add this disclaimer to the front of the show: “While the motion picture is inspired by actual events and persons, certain characters, incidents, locations, dialogue, and names are fictionalized for the purposes of dramatization.” Linda Fairstein will not receive any money.
Ava Duvernay released a statement to Deadline stating, “After years of legal wrangling and millions of dollars spent, [former prosecutor Linda Fairstein] walked away with no payment to her or her lawyers of any kind, rather than face cross examination before a New York jury as to her conduct and character. I believe that Linda Fairstein was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the Central Park Jogger case that resulted in the wrongful conviction of five innocent Black and Brown boys.”
Read Ava DuVernay’s full statement on Linda Fairstein’s lawsuit and today’s settlement HERE or see below.
Source: Radio One Digital
