TheAgitator.com
Witch Hunt
Thursday, December 17th, 2009Caught the documentary Witch Hunt last night, in part as research for my crime column next week. It’s a look at a string of at least 34 wrongful child molestation convictions in the 1980s in Bakersfield, California. It’s one of the more affecting and moving documentaries I’ve ever seen. If you ever want to show someone just how terrifyingly random and unfair the criminal justice system can be, sit them down and show them this movie. It’s available on iTunes. Trailers and a promo for the Documentary Channel below.
Witch Hunt is also available on Netflix Watch Instant, FWIW.
Another brilliant doc available there that was produced by MSNBC films is Dear Zachary.
Off topic alert.
Inquiry Condemns Oversight at State Police Crime Lab
Just watching the promos and trailers has me wondering: why aren’t the prosecutors, interviewers, detectives and judges involved in these prosecutions dead?
God bless the folks who made it through all that, and I certainly hope they’re better people than I imagine I’d be after such an ordeal. But if any of them decide to settle their accounts with the animals who put them in prison I’d be perfectly okay with it.
I thought “Witch Hunt” was pretty good. I’ve read a ton of books about the child care sex abuse prosecutions of the 80s and 90s (of which Bakersfield was only the beginning) and it’s enough to turn your stomach. The fact that most people haven’t a clue as to what it’s about is even more scary because it indicates how blind American’s are when it comes to even the worst abuses of the justice system.
I just started watching “War Made Easy” which is also narrated by Sean Penn. I’m not very far into it, but I’m finding it equally interesting (although a completely different topic, of course).
Hey just FYI for all the Netflix people out there, Witch Hunt is available for both DVD and streaming. That shit’s already all up in my queue.
A bit more on the link posted in #1 above:
The New York State Police’s supervision of a crime laboratory was so poor that it overlooked evidence of pervasively shoddy forensics work, allowing an analyst to go undetected for 15 years as he falsified test results and compromised nearly one-third of his 322 cases, an investigation by the state’s inspector general has found.
But…
Mr. Corbitt added in a statement released after the inspector general’s report came out on Thursday that he was confident that the lapses at the lab did not result in anyone innocent going to jail. “We are satisfied that there were no wrongful convictions, nor any miscarriages of justice which resulted from these improper procedures,” he said.
Which is an astoundingly absurd statement if you read the article.
#6 Dave
This was enough for me:
“The analyst’s training was so substandard that at one point last year, investigators discovered he did not know how to operate a microscope essential to performing his job, a report released Thursday by the inspector general said.”
Florida man exonerated after 35 years
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091217/ap_on_re_us/us_old_rape_dna
Another bad eye-witness and police lineup steals a man’s freedom (much more limited now than when he entered prison in 1974). Another case of cops, prosecutors, and judges getting away with it.
I caught this as well, some months ago. Wholly disheartening. I’d also recommend the book by the same name, but on a different topic, by Kathryn Lyons. It deals instead with the Wenchatee, WA sex abuse hysteria which, if I remember correctly, wins by sheer volume.
My family had just moved to Bakersfield when the convictions in those cases started flowing in. Even as a kid (I was 10 when we moved to town), it all seemed too far-fetched to be something that *really* happened.
Also, it should be noted that (despite the Wikipedia entry to the contrary) that Ed Jagels is *still* the DA in Kern County — though he has stated that he intends to retire when his term is over.
Kern County has a lot of the same reasons for electing Jagels again and again and again as those given in the article about Arpaio’s continues success (though with more of a “law and order” angle than Joe’s “immigrants are the root of all evil” platform).
For those of you who have seen it – does the film offer any suggestion of WHY this happened? It seems like it was systematic falsification of evidence or coercion of these kids. Are we to believe that the prosecutors and social workers really believed these things happened and wanted to get the bad guys at any cost? Or was it some darker self-serving motive of locking up the bad guys to look like a hero? That’s the part I can’t understand.
Wow, that series of clips really hits home for me.
When I was 12, my neighbors hired me to babysit their infant daughter for their 2-3 hour ‘date nights.’ One night I awoke to a knock on the front door, and a minute later my mother came up, sobbing, telling me I had to go with the police. I soon learned that I was under investigation for, of all things, child molestation.
I was taken to the youth jail, and interrogated by two intimidating cops who told me horror stories about what happened to “perverts” in jail. They then threatened me with a few decades in jail (they weren’t lying, either – I live in Georgia…) Needless to say, I was scared shitless. A 12 year-old simply can’t fathom such an accusation. I truly thought my life was over before it had even truly begun, and I sank into a deep depression.
After waiting for 4 agonizing months for any word on the outcome of the investigation, I finally learned that my “witch-hunt” was due to a doctor’s report citing “vaginal irritation” from some sort of “infection.” I learned from the neighbors that neither they nor the doctor felt that anything had happened to indicate abuse, but because the government mandates the reporting of “anything suspicious,” I spent half a year in hell.
Ultimately (and very fortunately for me) the “justice” system worked…but as we Agitator readers see, it regularly malfunctions, and innocent people pay with their LIVES. From that point on, I vowed to be a skeptic. To this day, when I read about so-called “open-and-shut” cases, I know there is a real possibility that the suspect is being railroaded straight to hell. I also know that 99% of the “reasonable” people out there would have these people executed upon mere accusations.
My experience turned me from a curious, outgoing child to a cynical and jaded person to this day. I got a taste of what these people went through, and it tasted like real shit. That said, I wouldn’t change it either. It made me understand the importance of seeking the TRUTH. However, I have almost no faith in government’s ability to “seek truth” in a fair manner. People just don’t work that way, and governments consist of people.
In sum, I too wonder what some others here are wondering: why aren’t these prosecutors serving hard, painful time for robbing these innocent people of their entire lives? How in the hell do they get away with this? It seems like these minions of the legal system are completely without shame or conscience.
#1
Great. I already paid ten bucks to buy it on iTunes, when I could have watched it for free.
I wouldn’t call your story an example of the justice system working. A justice system that worked wouldn’t be forcing people, who otherwise see no cause for concern, to manufacture suspicion out of thin air.
No, this is more like a justice system that intentionally targets non-criminals simply because it’s less work and there are far more of them. It most certainly has nothing to do with protecting the public. Someone who is interested in protecting the public doesn’t go around arresting, investigating, and humiliating everyone in hopes of finding someone they can pin something on.
Serving the public is no more a mission of law enforcement than it is of the public school system.
One of the saddest (of many) moments came when the child (now grown and a father) of one of the accused couples explained how he is afraid to love and bath his own child. These people have been stripped of their humanity and we allow it. Are we demanding accountability from the over zealous prosecutor who has gone on to reap the rewards of a fictitious record? We have the means and ability to uncover so many other miscarriages of justice. This week we saw a man be released after 35 years in jail because his innocence was proved by a DNA test. Why the hell would it take 35 years to prove his innocence if it could be done with a test? Imagine it taking 35 years to have a test to confirm a life threatening disease…being incarcerated is life threatening no matter what your glamorized versions of prison lead you to believe! We have the ability to discover innocence if we would stop promoting personal agendas at the sake of other’s lives!
Before long, you probably won’t have to imagine it.
Watching “Witch Hunt” now. I should be over my seething rage by Xmas.
Donate to the Innocence Project:
http://www.innocenceproject.org/donate/Donate-By-Mail.php
There are still many people languishing in prisons who have been convicted of these “imaginary” crimes against children. They are faced with the near-impossible task of trying to produce evidence to refute a crime that never occurred. The National Center for Reason and Justice in Boston ( http://www.ncrj.org ) is an important volunteer organization that sponsors 2 dozen such cases, where there is significant doubt about the guilt of the accused. Their first successful case was that of Bernard Baran, but they have been been effective in helping several other people since then.
And how many guilty Catholic priests are walking free, because they belong to an organization w/ political clout?