Four Lives Lost Press Release

[Note: Friends of Justice is a personal blog. I speak only for myself.]

National Center for Reason and Justice

www.ncrj.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Debbie Nathan

National Center for Reason and Justice

naess2@gmail.com

NCRJ Optimistic for Justice in Case of Falsely Accused Gay Texas Women

New York, NY—December 20, 2010

The four women, all friends, didn’t stand a chance. It was 1994 in Texas. They were young, poor, mostly Latina—and gay. It was easy to falsely accuse them of raping little girls. It was barely harder to convict them.

The National Center for Reason and Justice, a non-profit legal and advisory group for the falsely accused and wrongfully convicted, is much encouraged by an in-depth feature article in today’s San Antonio Express News documenting serious flaws in the trial and convictions of four gay women accused of sexually abusing children.

Three of the women were only 19 and the fourth was 21 when they were accused, in 1994. Elizabeth Ramirez was sent to prison in 1997 and the other three were convicted the next year. The medical evidence was invalid and should not have been admitted. The case was poisoned with homophobia and hysteria, including about non-existent “satanic ritual abuse.”

The NCRJ has sponsored this case for over two years and worked with the Innocence Project of Texas, which recently accepted the case for appeal.

The public has been too long unaware of the serious errors that led to this miscarriage of justice. We hope that the exposure in the Express-News will be followed by the national attention this case deserves.

The story was published in the Express-News today and will be available at the paper’s web site on Wednesday.

3 Responses to “Four Lives Lost Press Release”

  1. Shelomith Stow says:

    For those who believe that false accusations and wrongful convictions do not occur, thank God that it has never happened to you or one you love. Actually, with DNA now disproving rape and assault convictions from the past, one would have to have his head in the sand not to realize this is a real and serious issue.
    Anyone who reads the entire story of this case, as objectively written as you wish it to be, will come to the conclusion that, at the very least, it must be re-opened and a new investigation be done for justice to come anywhere near being served.

  2. michael mcconnell says:

    It does not surprize me to see that Texas is still , as always, millions of miles away from reason, and justice !!!!! hate , homophobia and republican “‘Family Values” , the KKK and Bush mentality seem to be the things that flourish best in the lone star state !!! It’s why it is a “lone ” star state !!!!

  3. Shelomith Stow says:

    Okay Michael, I am a Texan through and through since the age of six. You are waaaay over-generalizing. Neither I nor my friends, family, or acquaintances operate from a base of hate, we are not homophobic, and the KKK are and have always been idiots, I do admit to not hating Bush, and Republicans don’t own family values. True “family values” could be the salvation of our nation if misguided souls didn’t pervert them into something they are not. I am a dedicated Christian, part-time Republican, part-time Democrat, and strong believer in family values as well as reason and justice. I find absolutely nothing in what gives every appearance of being a false accusation and a total travesty of justice that is consistent with “family values.” In fact, I find them polar opposites just as I find almost everything about the way the sex offender registry, restrictions, and laws are used. There is nothing family-value or justice oriented about a system that lumps together everything from kids who make stupid mistakes up to and including violent child predators. There is nothing redemptive about a system that makes it impossible for those who have made mistakes, even the serious ones, to overcome them and rejoin society and destroys other children’s lives in the process. And there is certainly nothing favorable, from anyone’s point of view, in a system that can unjustly convict a person with no evidence whatsoever, based upon nothing but an accusation.

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