Archive for April, 2016

What It’s Like to Be Falsely Branded a Satanic Child Molester

Monday, April 25th, 2016

“In the file of worst possible things that could happen to you, being falsely accused of sexually abusing young children, and then convicted and imprisoned for over a decade, is probably close to the top of the pile.

“This is the hell that was dealt out to a few dozen Americans in the great Satanic sexual abuse panic that burned its way across the nation in the 1980s and 90s. Rumors and media fervor, followed by wild and often impossible accusations from little children, methodically coaxed out by bogus experts, sent childcare employees and others to prison all over the United States. From the McMartin family’s preschool in Los Angeles—the longest criminal trial in US history at the time, which ended with nearly all charges dropped—to the saga of the Amirault family’s day-care center in Malden, Massachusetts, where prosecutors said about 40 kids were “tied to trees, sexually penetrated with knives, and tortured by a ‘bad clown’ in a “secret room,'” it was a dark time.”

Read the article by Chase Madar in Vice.

Readers can contact Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Nico LaHood at 210 335 2311 to politely but firmly request a full exoneration.

Act Now to Help Exonerate the San Antonio Four

Wednesday, April 20th, 2016

photo: debbie nathan

Here are some things you can do right now to help them find justice.

A Different Kind of Horror Film

Saturday, April 16th, 2016

“What makes Southwest of Salem even more extraordinary is that it is Esquenazi’s first feature film. The Austin resident uses a sure hand to guide the viewer through a complicated narrative, laying out the facts while still deftly conveying the intense emotion behind a story in which many lives were damaged. It’s a tale that at times feels all too familiar to people who follow the twists of the Texas justice system—just how easily a case can spiral out of control when people get crazy ideas in their heads and the law plays along.”

Read the article by Michael Hall in Texas Monthly.

Are Sex Offenders White?

Tuesday, April 12th, 2016

“Yes, this group is more racially proportionate to the general population than, say, drug offenders. But like every other criminal population, people convicted and punished for sex crimes are disproportionately African-American.”

Read the article by Judith Levine and Erica Meiners in Counterpunch.

Anderson’s ‘dying wish’ revisits controversial case

Tuesday, April 12th, 2016

(AP Photo/Barry Chin-Pool)

According to Amirault, Baker spoke to him in 2014 while he was campaigning for governor in the North End in Boston. “He made a commitment to me in front of my whole family that once he was elected one of the first things on his list would be to take care of my situation,” Amirault said.

Read the article by Paul Leighton in the Salem News.

Convicted of a Crime That Never Happened

Saturday, April 9th, 2016

Photo: Jana Birchum

“Today, there are few true believers left who vocally insist upon this history. To many in the criminal justice system, it is now a source of embarrassment that there was ever a time when police and prosecutors were convinced that bands of Satanists had infiltrated the nation’s day care centers in order to abuse young children. Yet in the Kellers’ case, which I investigated for the Austin Chronicle back in 2009, I was startled to hear both a veteran cop and prosecutor say they still believed in even the most absurd of the children’s allegations against the Kellers.

Read the article by Jordan Smith in The Intercept.

Don’t Just Get Kids Off the Sex Offender Registry. Abolish It

Friday, April 8th, 2016

Exclusive focus on the young offender—rather than a rejection of the entire sex offender regime—avoids the larger, less politically popular truth. “Sex offender registries are harmful to kids and to adults,” says Emily Horowitz, associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and a board member of the National Center for Reason & Justice, which works for sensible child-protective policies and against unjust sex laws. “No evidence exists that they prevent sex crimes either by juvenile offenders or adult offenders.”

Read the Counterpunch article by Judith Levine (NCRJ Board Member) and Erica Meiners.