**UPDATE: 6/7/2019** Dutton, a division of Penguin Random House, announced they will no longer be publishing books by Linda Fairstein and dropped their publishing contract. Simon & Schuster still has not made public comment. 

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Linda Fairstein was one of the top prosecutors of the Central Park Five case and oversaw the young boys' interrogation. She falsely prosecuted these young innocent Black boys and lied and altered evidence illegally to gain convictions and false confessions. But that's not all. Fairstein was also instrumental in covering up Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct and worked directly as a consultant with his legal team to have the case dead in weeks. Now, retired from her position as prosecutor and head of sex crimes unit for the Manhattan District Attorney, a position she held from 1976-2002, she is profiting off her years as corrupt prosecutor by writing best-selling crime novels with the publishing houses Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House. Despite Fairstein's long history of corruption in the Manhattan DA's office she has still been able to publish over ten books with Simon & Schuster publishing house. 

Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise, all of whom were between the age of 14-16 years old, spent between 7-14 years in a cage for a crime they didn't commit. And Linda Fairstein made, and continues to make, thousands of dollars writing and selling crime novels with Simon & Schuster and Random House based on her experiences as a corrupt prosecutor. Fairstein has built a false persona as a crusader for sexual assault victims when in reality she allowed real predators, like Harvey Weinstein, to walk free while making fake convictions against young innocent Black people. Fairstein does not deserve to have a platform and should not be making money off the backs of young Black people who's lives she ruined. 

This isn't the first time Simon & Schuster has been pushed to drop racist writers from their roster. In 2017 they gave white supremacist Milo Yiannopoulos a six-figure book deal to express his racist, misogynistic, anti-Trans and xenophobic beliefs. However, Color Of Change, along with the support of our members, was able to get Milo’s book deal canceled. We can win again if we stand together. Join us in demanding Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House drop Linda Fairstein.

Will you sign the petition?  

Here is the Petition:

Linda Fairstein was one of the top prosecutors and oversaw the interrogation of the Central Park Five case. She falsely prosecuted young innocent Black boys and lied and altered evidence illegally to gain conviction and false confessions. Now, retired from her position as prosecutor and head of sex crimes unit for the Manhattan District Attorney, a position she held from 1976-2002, she is profiting off her years as a corrupt prosecutor by writing best-selling crime novels with your publishing house. We urge you to immediately drop Linda Fairstein.

The coerced confessions that Fairstein unjustly secured resulted in the wrongful convictions of the Central Park Five, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise, all of whom were between the age of 14-16 years old and had to serve between 6 months to 13 years in prison for a crime they had nothing to do with. Now, 30 years later, all of the men are free and received $41 million from New York City for malicious and false prosecution, racial discrimination, and emotional distress--much of this is due to the racist and malicious work of Linda Fairstein who still refuses to apologize and claims the men to be guilty, despite all know evidence that they are innocent. 

Racist prosecutors like Linda Fairstein should not be normalized, their experiences ruining the lives of Black people should not be glamorized and turned into best selling fiction novels, and they shouldn't be offered platforms by publishing houses. This is why we demand that you drop Linda Fairstein. 

Thank you,