Archive for February, 2016

Why Spotlight is a Terrible Film

Monday, February 29th, 2016

“I was in Boston in the Spring of 2002 reporting on the priest scandal, and because I know some of what is untrue, I don’t believe the personal injury lawyers or the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team or the Catholic “faithful” who became harpies outside Boston churches, carrying signs with images of Satan, hurling invective at congregants who’d just attended Mass, and at least once – this in my presence – spitting in the face of a person who dared dispute them.”

Read the article in Counterpunch by JoAnn Wypijewski.

The National Center for Reason and Justice sponsors the cases of Paul Shanley and Gordon MacRae.

Judge, DA agree ‘San Antonio Four’ case is weak — but not ready to drop it

Thursday, February 25th, 2016

MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net

Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas “Nico” LaHood strongly hinted Wednesday that he plans to seek dismissal of the cases against four San Antonio women who say they were wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting two girls in the late 1990s.

“I have some serious reservations about this case, and I don’t believe pursuing these cases would be in the interest of justice,” LaHood said.

Read the article by Elizabeth Zavala and Bruce Selcraig in the San Antonio Express-News.

Going Nowhere

Monday, February 22nd, 2016

‘The Los Angeles Times called International Megan’s Law “vindictive,” just one more torture exacted upon today’s designated boogeyman. In the Washington Post, David Post noted that a passport is not just a travel document but also a “badge of citizenship”—of identity. He and others have compared the “unique identifier” to a Scarlet Letter, the yellow star, or the “J” the Third Reich stamped on the passports of Jews.’

Read the article by Judith Levine in the Boston Review.

There is Hope for Joseph Allen!

Saturday, February 20th, 2016

…if you donate.

Readers of this blog are probably familiar with the case of Nancy Smith and Joseph Allen. If you need to refresh your memory, check out this link:

http://ncrj.org/the-wrongful-conviction-of-nancy-smith-and-joseph-allen/

This is one of the worst cases of injustice I have encountered. Almost everyone who looks at this case comes to the same conclusion.

In June of 2009, a judge reviewed the evidence against Smith and Allen, called them to court, and acquitted them. That should have been the end.

But Lorain Ohio District Attorney Dennis Will refused to accept this ruling and fought relentlessly to reinstate the convictions. While Will finally agreed to a plea deal that would leave Nancy Smith free but convicted, he insisted that Joseph — without a reasonable doubt an innocent man — be sent back to prison. And, in 2013, he was.

Now there is actually a chance that Will can be defeated. I believe his opponent in the March 15th primary, JD Tomlinson, will do everything in his power to right this awful injustice if elected.

Tomlimson is facing a powerful and ruthless opponent. His campaign needs money. I will give what I can. I hope you will too.

Send your contribution to:

J D Tomlinson for Prosecutor
633 West Broad Street, Suite 200
Elyria Ohio 44035

We’re Rethinking Prisons. Is It Time to Rethink Sex Offender Registries?

Friday, February 19th, 2016

(Courtesy of Tammy Bond)

Taken as a whole, Agan says, the existing research shows that “registries and post-release notification laws do not on balance seem to be effective at reducing sex crimes or recidivism by sex offenders.”

Read the article by Erica Meiners in In These Times.

Springfield man is freed after 1992 rape conviction is overturned

Thursday, February 11th, 2016

Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

“Perrot’s conviction rested heavily on the analysis of a single hair found at the scene of the violent rape of his neighbor in Springfield. Perrot always maintained his innocence, and the victim, then 78 and now deceased, never identified him as her assailant. The man who attacked her was clean shaven, she insisted; Perrot had a beard.

“An FBI analyst insisted, however, that the hair at the scene was Perrot’s. But the science behind hair analysis has since been debunked — more convictions could soon be overturned — and Kane in a January ruling overturned the conviction.”

Read the story by Nestor Ramos in the Boston Globe.

Please Send Bob Halsey a Birthday Card

Thursday, February 11th, 2016

Bob Halsey turns 87 on February 18th. I am surprised he is still alive. He has been in bad health for years.

Bob is an innocent man who has been in prison since September of 1993. He will die in prison. And even if by some miracle he were to be released, he has nowhere to go and no one to take him in.

Bob was railroaded by many of the same characters who sent Bernard Baran to prison. Baran’s prosecutor, Dan Ford, was the trial judge. Jane Satullo was the chief interrogator of the children.

You can learn more about his case.

Here is the address for cards:

Robert C. Halsey
W-55045
POB 1218
Shirley MA 01464

S.D. case attracts Texas Innocence Project

Thursday, February 11th, 2016

[Mike] Ware [Executive Director of the Innocence Project of Texas] continued, “I have had the opportunity to review the expert medical testimony at trial and the techniques used in the sexual assault examinations back in 1994. As well as the conclusions and opinions reached and expressed in court to the jury by the government’s experts. They appear to be seriously flawed, particularly in light of what qualified doctors and sexual assault nurses now know.”

“It seems fundamentally unfair to continue the incarceration of anyone based on such seriously flawed investigative techniques and inaccurate government sponsored ‘“expert”’ testimony.”

Read the article about an important case sponsored by the National Center for Reason and Justice by Evelyn Red Lodge (Tipi Luta Win) in the Native Sun News.

Obama Just Signed a Really Bad Criminal Justice Law

Wednesday, February 10th, 2016

“… there’s a deeply questionable moral calculus involved in holding people’s crimes against them long after they’ve paid their debt to society. In theory if not in practice, our justice system is built on the idea that this is wrong. Yet when it comes to sex offenders, American lawmakers seem not just willing but eager to impose punishment forever—a tendency that has resulted in sex offenders all over the country being forced into homelessness because residency restrictions have made it impossible for them to find housing. In its most extreme form, the idea that sex offenders never stop being dangerous has resulted in thousands of people being held indefinitely in “civil commitment” long after they’ve completed their prison terms.”

Read the article by Leon Neyfakh in Slate.

Do sex offenders deserve a scarlet letter on their passport?

Thursday, February 4th, 2016

(David Paul Morris / Getty Images)

“After rousing themselves from the 30-plus-year bad trip that was the war on drugs — or rather, the war on drug users — many Americans in and out of elected office looked around for someone else to persecute. Someone, somewhere, must be so depraved and hateful that liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans could join in common cause to vilify them.”

Read the editorial by the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times.