(CNN) Author and former prosecutor Linda Fairstein -- facing a swarm of controversy over a Netflix series that examines a wrongful conviction in a high-profile rape case -- has resigned as a trustee of her alma mater.

Fairstein resigned as a member of the board of trustees of Vassar College, from which she graduated in 1969 , the college in Poughkeepsie, New York, said Tuesday.

Linda Fairstein has defended the handling of the Central Park Five case.

The Netflix limited series "When They See Us" dramatizes the story of five teenage boys of color who were wrongfully convicted in a jogger's 1989 rape.

Fairstein was a prosecutor in the case. There were complaints that the confessions of the Central Park Five , as they came to be known, were coerced, and their convictions were overturned in 2002 after Matias Reyes, a convicted serial rapist, confessed to the rape.