Central Park Five lead prosecutor resigns from Columbia Law School

The fallout for the prosecutors in the Central Park Jogger case continues.

Following the release of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries, “When They See Us,” last week (May 31), Columbia Law School announced lead prosecutor Elizabeth Lederer would be stepping down from her part-time position at the university. Lederer served as an adjunct faculty member and lecturer in law for several years before she received renewed backlash over her involvement in the 1989 case.

“I’ve enjoyed my years teaching at CLS, and the opportunity it has given me to interact with the many fine students who elected to take my classes,” she said in a statement. “However, given the nature of the recent publicity generated by the Netflix portrayal of the Central Park case, it is best for me not to renew my teaching application.”

The Black Law Students Association at Columbia reportedly took issue with Lederer’s employment at the school. Many of the students considered Lederer’s actions in the case to be racially motivated and pressured the university’s administrators to remove her from the faculty, TMZ reports.

After Lederer’s resignation was announced, the association issued a statement on Instagram expressing approval of the decision, however, also recognized “there is much work to be done.”

“We hope to work with the administration, faculty, and students to implement mandatory trainings for all faculty, and to ensure more inclusivity in the classroom. The proposed trainings will contribute to a robust learning community for all students at Columbia Law School,” the statement reads.

The news comes after fellow Central Park 5 prosecutor Linda Fairstein also resigned from a slew of positions last week. As previously reported, Fairstein stepped down from her alma mater’s board of trustees and from the board of Safe Horizon, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting victims of domestic abuse in New York City.

On Monday (June 10), Fairstein released an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling the Netflix miniseries ‘an outright fabrication’ and called into question DuVernay’s portrayal of the case and the defendants. Meanwhile, Netflix recently announced “When They See Us” has been the most-watched series on the streaming platform in the U.S. every day since it premiered.

Keep reading to see a portion of Lederer’s resignation letter and the Black Law Students Association’s response ahead.