Thread by @DanielRAlonso

THREAD re: Linda Fairstein. The outrage factory targets the former prosecutor who got rape corroboration repealed, worked to enact the rape shield law, spearheaded eliminating NYC's rape kit backlog, and spearheaded John Doe indictments of DNA profiles. /1 bit.ly/2ZfkmZj

Accepting that the five defendants in the Central Park Jogger case were wrongfully convicted - absolutely *awful* in itself - no one has come close to making the case that Linda Fairstein and Liz Lederer should be vilified the way they have been. /2

People fail to grasp that this awful fact is not evidence that either #prosecutor did anything wrong. I've said this before, but it's worth emphasizing: this is a criminal justice *system*, & it's designed to make it more likely that guilty are freed than innocent convicted. /3

But sometimes, the system fails - as all systems do. We can hope to learn from mistakes and failures, and do our best to avoid them in the future. /4

How do I know they handled the case reasonably? I don't have personal knowledge, but when @BilldeBlasio became Mayor, he made it a point to settle the civil lawsuit and asked his Corporation Counsel, Zachary Carter, to do so. /5

I respect the hell out of Carter (he hired me as a federal prosecutor), and I think most people do, including, notably, many progressives. Here's what Carter said about the prosecutors and detectives when the city announced the settlement: /6

"This agreement should not be construed as an acknowledgment that the convictions of these 5 plaintiffs were the result of law enforcement misconduct. On the contrary, our review of the record suggests that both the investigating detectives & the ADAs involved in the case... /7

... acted reasonably, given the circumstances with which they were confronted on April 19, 1989 and thereafter." /8 www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-…

So we have prosecutors who acted reasonably, and it looks like they got it wrong after new evidence came out later. That's *clearly* not misconduct, but more importantly, is that what we're doing now? Are we really taking 1 incident/case in a long career & writing people off? /9

Lederer has solved multiple cold cases and put away many murderers. Fairstein prosecuted hundreds of rapists, and supervised the prosecution of thousands more. They both, literally, saved lives. /10

And here's a fascinating part of this: the facts of the jogger case have been known for many years, and enormous amounts of evidence have been freely available on line since 2016. /11 nyc-cpj.org/Home/Disclaimer

But the outrage didn't really get going until a few days ago - when a *dramatization* of the case, from the point of view of the defendants, was released on @netflix. Once people saw that, they were off to the races. /12

Really? Are we not only vilifying people's entire careers, but also doing it based on depictions in drama? I haven't seen the full movie yet, but the director made it without speaking to Fairstein or Lederer. But again, I don't know the facts firsthand, so here's . . . /13

. . . info from Fairstein's lawyer, who told @WNYC that the mini-series "grossly misrepresented Linda’s participation, is filled with outright lies, [and is] missing large swaths of critical, actual facts, documents and testimony." /14 wnyc.org/story/public-a…

Again, I accept that they were wrongfully convicted, and want us to work so this never happens again. But we shouldn't become an angry mob based on what we see at the movies. Particularly when there's actual *evidence* to review. /15 nyc-cpj.org/Home/Disclaimer

Now, the Style reporter from the @washingtonpost has gotten into the mix, embracing the narrative based on the dramatization. /16 washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/styl…

The reporter (@MonicaHesse), catalogs her research into past positive articles written about Fairstein, claiming that she "brought a lot of swagger to her public persona." /17

I believe that treating #prosecutors as rock stars, or even mere celebrities, is a bad idea, and wrote just that last week in a different context. /18

https://twitter.com/DanielRAlonso/status/1133048901160919042

But that doesn't mean Fairstein was wrong in accepting that celebrity; in fact, it helped her do genuine good in her victim advocacy efforts. /19

There are no winners here, least of all the men convicted. But shame on those who would define an extraordinary public service career by one unfortunate case. It's exactly the kind of unfairness no one would tolerate from - a #prosecutor. /End wnyc.org/story/public-a…