A trial over Fairstein’s portrayal in the series, “When They See Us,” had been set to begin next week in Manhattan federal court.

Netflix said as part of the settlement, it would donate US$1 million to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that works to free wrongfully convicted people. It said Fairstein would not receive money as part of the settlement.

The series dramatised the story of five Black and Hispanic teenagers who spent five to 13 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in the April 1989 rape of a white jogger in Central Park. Another man confessed in 2002.

Fairstein, 77, had been running the Manhattan district attorney’s office sex crimes unit when the 28-year-old jogger, later identified as Trisha Meili, was attacked.

She alleged defamatory scenes in the series included suggestions she withheld evidence, coerced confessions, and ordered a mass police roundup of young Black men.