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Linda Fairstein has resigned from the board of Vassar College, which has been facing pressure to remove her from the board. Fairstein supervised the investigations that led to the convictions of five black and Latinx young men for the 1989 rape of a woman known as the Central Park jogger. The convictions were overturned -- after those convicted spent years in jail -- on the basis of DNA evidence. Many have said that racial bias tainted the investigation, a view that has been reinforced by a new Netflix documentary.
Vassar's president, Elizabeth H. Bradley, said in a statement, "I am told that Ms. Fairstein felt that, given the recent widespread debate over her role in the Central Park case, she believed that her continuing as a board member would be harmful to Vassar. The events of the last few days have underscored how the history of racial and ethnic tensions in this country continue to deeply influence us today, and in ways that change over time. As I have received many emails and phone calls from people who have expressed a broad range of views on this issue, I am reminded of William Faulkner’s quote 'The past is never dead. It’s not even past.'"
