Handout/Getty Images for Netflix
After four years, Central Park Five prosecutor Linda Fairstein‘s defamation lawsuit against Netflix and When They See Us director Anna DuVernay is expected to face trial in June. But before arguments begin in the Manhattan federal court, DuVernay and the Netflix team want the jury to watch their complete series about the infamous 1989 case.
The four-part 2019 series follows the high-profile case of Trisha Meili, a 28-year-old white woman who was assaulted during a jog in Manhattan’s Central Park. Five teenagers—all Black or Hispanic—were coerced to confess their role in the crime, despite evidence showing they did not rape or beat Meili. In 2002, their convictions were vacated after new DNA evidence and another man’s confession.
The group, dubbed the “Central Park Five,” was later awarded $41 million in a lawsuit against the city in a case widely viewed as an example of racial profiling in the criminal justice system.