Changing Places

Jeffrey Toobin: “Linda Fairstein and Yusef Salaam—their names emerge from the mists of semi-recent New York history. Their fates became linked on April 19, 1989, when the woman who became known as the Central Park jogger was assaulted. Fairstein was a prosecutor in the case, Salaam a defendant. She won a conviction; he went to prison. But in the years that followed, they have all but changed places, with their lives and reputations following contrasting sine curves.”

“Today, Fairstein lives in a kind of exile on a small island off the west coast of Florida. Salaam, who was ultimately cleared in the jogger case, shakes hands at subway stops in Harlem nearly every morning, with the same practiced pitch: ‘I’m Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five. I’m running for City Council, and I’d like your support.’ Election Day is June 27.”