Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and two city council members demanded at a press conference that the old cases of two sex crimes prosecutors be re-examined, after a new chorus of outrage eruped over the 1989 Central Park jogger case.
Critics say that former sex crimes prosecutor Linda Fairstein, who is a current crime novelist, and Elizabeth Lederer, who still works in the Manhattan District Attorney's office, obtained their convictions through forced confessions.
Williams also demanded that Penguin Publishing stop selling Fairstein's books and for Lederer to be fired from Columbia, where she's a lecturer.
"You cannot go on have a fruitful life after you destroy five young peoples youth as well as their families," he said. "All of them suffered for a crime they didn't commit."
The outrage comes five days after the release of the Netflix mini-series "When They See Us" by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, which dramatized the events of three decades ago from the perspective of the five wrongfully convicted teens: Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise.
The boys were convicted in the brutal rape of Trisha Meili based on confessions they said were coerced and without DNA evidence.
Meanwhile the actual perpetrator, Matias Reyes went on to stab and rape several other women and to kill 24-year-old Lourdes Gonzalez. Reyes was apprehended in August 1989 for the series of Upper East Side attacks, four months after he raped Meili in Central Park. He confessed to Meili's rape while in prison in 2002.
Fairstein's attorney Andrew Miltenberg said substantial damage has already been done to the former prosecutor. She's been forced to resign from several nonprofit boards she served on including Vassar College and the victims services nonprofit Safe Horizon.
"She is one of the brave people who helped make this city a safe place at a time when many thought New York City was sliding into a dark hole of crime," he said, saying 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."
Penguin Publishing, the Manhattan District Attorney's office and Netflix didn't return a request for comment.