According to one of the producers of Ava DuVernay's When they See Us, Linda Fairstein, the now infamous prosecutor of the Central Park Five case, refused to consult on the series if the men she wrongfully convicted--Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise--were to be consulted on the show as well.
It is executive producer Jane Rosenthal who says that she and her team communicated with Fairstein via email in regard to her possible consultation for the creation of the miniseries. Rosenthal says she believes that Fairstein considered consulting on the show despite a standing gag order because "she had other offers, and she was also concerned that we were talking to the five men."
"Her point of view was clearly that she didn’t want us talking to the five men if we were talking to her," Rosenthal added while speaking at a panel for the series during the Produced By conference, per Variety.
JC Olivera/Getty Images
"Are we saying that, Jane? I guess we are," director Ava DuVernay would add. "That’s the tea that just got spilled."
It's an interesting standpoint for Fairstein to have taken, considering the fact that the whole story is centered around wrongful imprisonment carried out by her team.
"I promised them I would tell their story. I made a promise and I intended to keep it — we all did,” DuVernay previously said of her commitment to maintain the story of the five accused men. "It was an honor and a thrill to be able to right a wrong. A wrong was done here. We’re at fancy panels and we’re wearing pretty dresses, but this is a tragedy. This should not have happened. These boys were innocent and everything said they were innocent… To think that this happened then and to know that it’s still happening, is what got me up every morning."