TheAgitator.com
This Week’s Crime Column…
Monday, August 17th, 2009….is on Bernard Baran, the gay Massachusetts man wrongly convicted and imprisoned for 22 years after a child molestation trial driven featuring sex abuse panic, homophobia, and a misbehaving prosecutor.
The column focuses in particular on the prosecutor, who is now a judge. Unfortunately, Judge Ford has never been investigated for his possible misconduct in winning Baran’s conviction.
How come we don’t see more stories about prosecutors being shot by the people they wrongfully put in jail?
If a prosecutor ever puts me in jail for something I did not do, he is in big trouble when I get out.
Kind of agree with Stephen there. How do you ruin an innocent person’s life and just get away with it? But I guess realistically there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
deniro wasn’t wrongfully convicted, but his max cady went after nick nolte in ‘cape fear’. it seems like a little frontier justice would be in order for these prosecutors…
If the boys at Duke hadn’t been rich enough to fight it, Nifong might be a judge now, too.
I did a bit of google searching and it seems like the prosecutors get shot a lot in places like Guatemala, Mexico, Russia, etc, but not much in the USA.
perlhaqr “If the boys at Duke hadn’t been rich enough to fight it, Nifong might be a judge now, too.”
True and I always wonder about all the guys Nifong had sent to prison prior to the Duke rape case. What are the chances they didn’t get railroaded too?
Well covered, Radley. The fact that this bullshit happened in my adult lifetime, not in some Bible-belt backwater, but in Massachusetts for god’s sake, and there’s been not much more than a collective shrug from the architects of the satanic abuse hysteria, nevermind the men like Ford who allowed investigators and prosecutors to profit from this grave injustice just makes me sick.
If I’d been shut in a cage, raped and beaten for 22 years I’d go on such a rampage of retribution it would make the Bride’s revenge from Kill Bill appear by comparison to be the model of restraint.
Dunno if you saw this, Radley, but here’s some fodder for your New Professionalism series: http://orangepunch.freedomblogging.com/2009/08/17/judge-robert-fitzgerald-coddles-violent-criminal/12047/
The real problem is that probably the attorney (Conway, but not relevant) was not at all incompetent. Given rulings in similar cases at the time, the trial judge would not have allowed any testimony that the childrens’ edited statements were not credible or that there was misconduct on the part of interviewers. It would have been useless for the defense attorney to file for information which would not have been presentable at trial.
A judge in Texas has gone on trial accused of refusing to let lawyers for a convicted murderer on death row lodge a last-minute appeal.
Sharon Keller is charged with professional misconduct.
The prisoner, Michael Wayne Richard, was put to death hours after she allegedly shut the court, despite being told an appeal was imminent.
Half of all executions in the US last year were in Texas and Judge Keller has earned the nickname Sharon Killer.
She is known for her tough stance on the death penalty.
Just hours before his scheduled execution in September 2007, lawyers for Richard tried to lodge an appeal with Judge Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Their efforts were delayed by computer glitches and when they phoned the court to request extra time, they say they were told court closes at 5pm.
Richard was put to death some three hours later.
Now his lawyers claim Judge Keller deliberately ordered the courthouse to close at 5pm, knowing a last-minute appeal was imminent.
[...]
US judge ‘ignored death row plea’
Nice piece, Radley. Serial pedophiles are nightmarish, but even more frightening are phenomena like the 1980s molestation hysteria, where the rules of evidence and common sense were suspended to lock up innocent people with the full blessing of the media, the government and most of society. It’s no exaggeration whatsoever to compare them to the Salem witch trials.
#8 | Matthew Peck
Great (for lack of a better word) link.
This particular case has it all that is wrong with “law and order” today: Coerced suspect identification, dubious dog scent tracking (by the same guy the DA had previously dismissed, in an earlier case), blantant judicial misconduct.
The writer of the articles kept saying that, confidentially and off the record, “several in law enforcement agreed there were serious “problems” with the DA’s methods and “facts” in this case.”
But as per usual, refused to “stand up and be counted.” Thereby proving, yet again, there are no good cops, DA’s, Judges, etc.
blantant judicial misconduct.
I meant “blatant”
#8 Matthew–thanks for the link. Outrageous, but something is missing here. I’m a criminal defense attorney (another state) and I’m not aware of any way by which a judge can reduce felonies to misdemeanors. That is the exclusive province of the prosecution. If a judge did so then then someone should file a judicial complaint for overstepping of authority.
Folks, the hysteria hasn’t abated everywhere. These are both from 2008.
Abuse Charges Against Michigan Teacher Dropped As Prosecutor Faces Bar Disciplinary Action
and
Part one: How to wreck a boy’s life
Part two: Sex abuse case against Oakland couple was legal horror show
Radley, when you next upgrade the site please get a preview option. A comment like this one goes up hoping for the best. If it’s hosed I’ll have to repost.
Thanks.
The story is the ridiculousness that passes for public defenders. Eventually the federal government is going to get involved at this rate.
Not related, but did you see this Radster?!:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18dna.html?_r=1