Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
I’m not thrilled about how they edited it.
I particularly didn’t like their substituting “Many halfway intelligent people have come to believe that no crimes were committed in these instances, and that unreliable evidence was used” for “Halfway intelligent people who have looked into these cases have quickly realized that no crimes were committed and that the Amiraults and Souzas were convicted on fabricated unreliable evidence.” I’d have little problem if they had just omitted the word many, which drains the sentence of meaning.
I’m somehow reminded of the routine in which Peter Cook defends his taking a job with the Beaverbrook newspapers by saying, “Just because my name appears at the top of the column you mustn’t assume that I’m in some way connected with it.”
-Bob
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Dear Friend of Justice,
Today the Boston Globe published this predictably adulatory article about Martha Coakley.
There is no mention of her signing the amicus supporting absolute prosecutorial immunity. Nor is there any mention of her prosecution of Ray and Shirley Souza, a case that thrust her into the public eye long before she prosecuted Louise Woodward.
At least it mentions (at the end of a long article) her disgraceful role in the Amirault case, which she still defends.
“I am as convinced [as I am of] anything that those children were abused at that day-care center by the three defendants [Violet, Cheryl, and Gerald Amirault], and if I weren’t, I would be the first to acknowledge that,’’ she said.
This statement alone is ample proof that Coakley is either an idiot or a liar. In either case, she is unfit for public office.
Please write to the Globe. The email address is letter@globe.com.
I will send them a modified version of my letter to the Phoenix. But the more letters they receive, the more likely it is that they will run one.
-Bob Chatelle
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Dear Editor:
I was disappointed that the Phoenix chose to describe Attorney General’s Martha Coakley’s stand against the health-care bill recently passed by the House of Representatives as “principled.” Coakley takes “principled” stands when they benefit her politically. And her more dubious stands are ignored by the adoring press.
How many voters, for example, know that she recently signed Massachusetts onto an amicus brief that advocates total immunity for prosecutors?
The case, now before the Supreme Court, concerns two Iowa African-Americans who were framed by prosecutors for a murder they did not commit. These two innocent men spent 25 years of their lives in prison. Because of Coakley, Massachusetts now supports the position that “There is no freestanding Constitutional ‘right not to be framed.’“ Coakley and the Iowa prosecutors argue that there would be a “chilling” effect if prosecutors were forced to obey the law. One would hope so.
Most, unfortunately, have forgotten Coakley’s own checkered history as a prosecutor in the Middlesex DA’s office. She was an avid witch hunter while the daycare sex panic still raged. She came to prominence prosecuting Ray and Shirley Souza, two grandparents who were charged with bizarre sex crimes they did not commit. She also fought to send the Amiraults back to prison and successfully lobbied against commuting Gerald Amirault’s sentence.
Halfway intelligent people who have looked into these cases have quickly realized that no crimes were committed and that the Amiraults and Souzas were convicted on fabricated unreliable evidence. Unfortunately, few voters remember that Coakley had anything to do with these cases.
Coakley is not “principled.” She is ruthlessly ambitious. If would be tragic should she be elected to succeed Ted Kennedy.
Robert B. Chatelle
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Dear Friend of Justice,
While a few remember Coakley’s disgraceful (but late) involvement in the Amirault case, fewer remember her career-making prosecution of two innocent Lowell grandparents, convicted (without evidence) of sexually abusing their grandchildren.
Coakley was the prosecutor.
Please read this account of the case by Mark Pendergrast.
-Bob
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Martha Coakley, the current Massachusetts Attorney General, is not fit to be a United States Senator. Anyone who thinks so only needs to study the Fells Acres Day Care case. The Fells Acres Day Care was started by Violet Amirault and run with the help of her son, Gerald, and his sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave. In the midst of the daycare sex abuse hysteria of the 1980s, all three were charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse.
The charges were some of the most heinous ever made. However, they were also ludicrous. Supposedly Gerald dressed up as a clown and assaulted the children in a secret or magic room. Some children claimed to be sodomized with two foot knives and lobsters. Some of the acts allegedly took place on the front lawn in full view of the highway.
Read the entire article.
-Bob Chatelle
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.
Dear Friend of Justice,
A great many injustices have been caused by dangerous techniques used by psychotherapists who abhor scientific method — e.g., coercive interviewing of children (and adults) and the implantation of false memories.
An important new report has been published documenting the attitudes many therapists have about science:
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/index.cfm?journal=pspi&content=pspi/9_2
There have also been articles about this study in the Los Angeles Times (click here) and Newsweek (click here).
-Bob
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