photo: jim d’entremont
This Sunday at 2:00 p.m. EDT Eric Tennen, one of Bernard Baran’s attorneys, will be discussing the case on Worcester radio stations WCRN.
You can listen to the program by following this link.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Eric Tennen Discusses the Baran Case
March 31st, 2016
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
When facts aren’t facts: A look at the effectiveness of sexual offender registries
March 27th, 2016
Jason Malmont, The Sentinel
“However, overwhelming research has shown that sexual offenders, as a whole, are some of the least likely groups to commit new crimes, Rydberg said.
“Rydberg said one major study found that only about 5 percent of sexual offenders committed a new sexual crime within five years. The U.S. Department of Justice places the re-offense rate for sexual offenders as low as 3 to 10 percent, and a study conducted by Karl Hanson found that out of 8,000 offenders that were tracked, none who remained offense-free for 15 years were likely to reoffend after.”
Read the article by Joshua Vaughan in The Sentinel.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
A Special Evening With the San Antonio Four
March 23rd, 2016The National Center for Reason and Justice (NCRJ)
Invites you to a special evening with the “SAN ANTONIO 4”
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 7:30 PM
Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St., NYC
photo: debbie nathan
The “San Antonio 4” are four Latina lesbians who collectively spent more than 50 years in Texas prisons after being falsely accused and wrongfully convicted of child sex abuse in an infamous case rife with hysteria, homophobia and panic about child molestation. Anna Vasquez, Elizabeth Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh and Cassandra Rivera are coming to NYC for the first time, to speak about their prosecution and imprisonment at this special April 13th event and to appear at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of a documentary about their case, Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio 4, directed by Deborah S. Esquenazi.
Join us to hear the women talk about being wrongfully accused of the worst crime imaginable to the public–and about how their conviction for this bizarre, imagined crime was assured after prosecutors learned that they lived openly as lesbians in San Antonio, a stronghold of homophobia in the early 1990s. Recently released and now fighting a legal battle to clear their names, three of the women (Anna, Elizabeth and Cassandra) will appear with journalist Debbie Nathan, the NCRJ board member, who first reviewed their case and brought it to the attention of concerned activists and lawyers, ultimately securing support from the Innocence Project of Texas and attorney Mike Ware who won their release and is waging the legal fight for their innocence.
Also appearing will be Kelly Michaels, a New Jersey woman who was falsely accused of “ritual” daycare sex abuse in the 1980s after police discovered she was living in a lesbian relationship. She was sentenced to 47 years and spent five years in prison before being freed due to the efforts of lawyers and feminists.
The San Antonio 4 are now fighting for exoneration and compensation for the decades they lost in prison. They and Kelly Michaels will discuss what it was like to have the world view them as monsters. Debbie Nathan will tell how she learned of the plight of all the women, first in the 1980s and again twenty years later. San Antonio 4 attorney Mike Ware will talk about the next steps in the Texas women’s legal fight.
The event will also be an opportunity to learn more about the work of the NCRJ, including another ongoing case involving the “Yankton 4”, Native Americans falsely accused and wrongfully convicted in similar circumstances, as well as an update about Jesse Friedman (subject of Capturing the Friedmans), and his ongoing appeal.
NCRJ supporters and donors are welcome to attend this event; the first 10 people who donate $150 or more will receive 2 complimentary tickets to a screening on April 15 or April 17 of Southwest of Salem at the Tribeca film festival — please email NCRJ board member Emily Horowitz ebhorowitz@gmail.com if you plan to attend the event or if you would like tickets to the film with your $150+ donation. Donate online: http://ncrj.org/donate.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Learning From Our Mistakes
March 11th, 2016
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
The List
March 7th, 2016
Illustration by Geoff McFetridge
“One morning in 2007, Leah DuBuc, a twenty-two-year-old college student in Kalamazoo, began writing an essay for English class that she hoped would save her life. She knew that people like her had been beaten, bombed, shot at, killed. The essay aired details about her past that she’d long tried to suppress; by posting it on her class’s server, where anyone who Googled her name could find it, she thought she might be able to quiet the whispers, the threats, and possibly make it easier to find a job. Her story, she warned, “is not a nice one, but hopefully it will have a happy ending.”
Read the article by Sarah Stillman in the New Yorker.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Why Spotlight is a Terrible Film
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.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Judge, DA agree ‘San Antonio Four’ case is weak — but not ready to drop it
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.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Going Nowhere
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.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
There is Hope for Joseph Allen!
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
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
