Archive for February, 2014

Woody Allen and the Virtual Lynch Mob…

Sunday, February 16th, 2014

By Mark Godsey

Director, Center for the Global Study of Wrongful Conviction;
Director, Rosenthal Institute for Justice/Ohio Innocence Project

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/02/13/woody-allen-and-the-virtual-lynch-mob/

Woody Allen and the Virtual Lynch Mob…

Saturday, February 15th, 2014

“While I, of course, cannot be certain about what happened any more than those who would condemn Allen on the spot, I can say this: Some of the earmarks of a false allegation can be seen in this case. There are reasons to be concerned, just as many of the investigators and child psychologists were so gravely concerned when they closely interviewed the seven-year-old Dylan Farrow back in 1992 and told the authorities they believed the allegations were false.”

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/02/13/woody-allen-and-the-virtual-lynch-mob/

The writer, Mark Godsey, heads the Ohio Innocence Project.

Our misguided child porn laws do little to protect children

Saturday, February 15th, 2014

(AP Photo/WJLA-TV)

In fact, it is not clear why mere possession of child pornography should ever be grounds for locking people in cages. The Supreme Court’s main rationale for upholding the ban on possession was that demand for this material encourages its production, which necessarily involves the abuse of children. But this argument has little relevance now that people who look at child pornography typically get it online for free. Furthermore, people who possess “sexually obscene images of children” — production of which need not entail abuse of any actual children — face the same heavy penalties. “They are not protecting a single child,” Boland says. “They are throwing people in prison for having dirty thoughts and looking at dirty pictures.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/02/11/our-misguided-child-porn-laws-do-little-to-protect-children/

News Alert: Federal Appeal Filed in Fr Gordon MacRae Case

Tuesday, February 11th, 2014

http://thesestonewalls.com/gordon-macrae/news-alert-federal-appeal-filed-in-fr-gordon-macrae-case/

-Bob Chatelle

Wrongfully Convicted Dr. James Krivacska

Sunday, February 9th, 2014

From the NCRJ website.

Jury Awards 9 Million to Wrongfully Imprisoned Cop

Sunday, February 9th, 2014

Sharon Krause was also instrumental in sending an innocent mother, Lynn Malcom, to prison. The NCRJ has long sponsored Lynn’s case.


“Justice was served — even though it took 30 years,” Zellner said. “We were able to prove they framed him. We’ve proven the evidence was fabricated. And, after 30 years, that’s remarkable. Justice is alive and well in Washington.”

http://www.columbian.com/news/2014/feb/03/jury-awards-9-million-spencer/

Dylan Farrow’s Accusations

Friday, February 7th, 2014

Lawyers representing divorced people in custody battles know well that the first charge of child abuse gives the accuser momentum. False charges have become common in this context, even acceptable. A Seattle judge recently acknowledged that charges of molestation against one spouse by the other were false, but explained that they were understandable because the accuser was fighting for custody of the child. The accuser won. Compared to the venomous intensity of custody battles, criminal trials are pastorals.

There have been so many wrongful convictions for child sex abuse over the past 30 years that researchers are able to identify patterns of how false charges are created. The chief method is coercive and suggestive interviews by determined adults who already know what they want to hear. A young child learns by following the direction of grownups. It’s hard to imagine a technique more leading than for the child’s mother to follow her around for days with a camera, selectively recording answers to some, but not all, probes and questions and comments about sex abuse. Only a remarkably insensitive child would be indifferent to her caregiver’s strongest desires; there is no evidence that Dylan Farrow is insensitive. The use of that technique by Mia Farrow doesn’t mean that Dylan was not abused. It just means that Mia Farrow got the answers she wanted, whether or not Dylan was abused. That makes her tape unreliable.

When four-and five-years-olds have testified to impossibilities—being flown to Mexico to be abused and returned back in time to be picked up from daycare, watching their teachers eviscerate animals in the classroom—they cling to those events as if they were real. Ten-year-olds who testify falsely get caught up in the whirl of being a hero/victim, but they know when they go to sleep at night that it really wasn’t like that, and often they eventually recant. Seven-year-olds are somewhere in between. Dylan’s alleged abuse was a chief theme of the house in which she was raised; any counter-story would have been a betrayal of her mother. What should we make of the fact that Dylan still believes that it happened? Not much.

Woody Allen has a long history of keen interest in and involvements with post-pubescent women. Pedophiles don’t. The likelihood of him committing some unspecified form of sexual assault on a young child, especially while engaged in a custody battle, is minuscule. There is nothing that supports the truth of the charges against Woody Allen—not the timing and circumstances of how they came to light, not their investigation, and not the nature of the accused.

Michael R. Snedeker, Esq.

President, National Center for Reason and Justice

Coakley Should Apologize for Fells Acres Mistakes

Sunday, February 2nd, 2014

This editorial says what needs to be said about Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who — unfortunately — is now the leading candidate to become the next governor of the commonwealth.

“I see two moral or ethical lessons from this tragic case. The first is the continuing inability of the political ambitious and powerful to admit to a mistake. We do live in difficult media age where politicians are instantaneously crucified on Facebook, Twitter, political blogs, entertainment channels, and the 24/7 cable TV media. Underneath the criticisms, I do believe people are forgiving and would appreciate political honesty. Well, hopeful, anyhow.

“Secondly, the more frightening aspect of this tale is wholesale power we entrust to any one individual, especially when it comes to criminal prosecution, providing almost unlimited taxpayer-funded resources and authority shielded behind an elective office. The individual thus comes to symbolize or becomesthe state apparatus. True, nationally and in every state, this particular case that is such an egregious example.”

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/article/20140201/OPINION/140209771/11609/OPINION