Author: rbchatelle

Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff “Lisa Kavanaugh, one of Rosario’s lawyers, the head of the Innocence Program for the state’s public defender agency, said that Rosario should be exonerated by prosecutors. His conviction was thrown out in large part because advances in forensic technology cast doubt on whether the fire was deliberately set, raising questions about the… Continue reading Freedom remains tenuous for freed prisoner

photo credit: washington post “Attorneys for the two men said medical experts have relied on three injuries to reach the conclusion that both victims were violently shaken: bleeding behind the eyes, bleeding on the surface of the brain, and brain swelling. Those injuries alone, defense attorneys said, are not sufficient to prove that the toddlers… Continue reading Men accused of killing toddlers say Shaken Baby Syndrome should be on trial, not them

“Homophobia and hysteria didn’t deprive these women of their freedom – prosecutors did. The state’s reluctance to take responsibility in a case where its failings have been unusually well-documented and publicized suggests locking up the occasional innocent person isn’t that big a deal. With that conviction-at-all-costs mentality pervasive among prosecutors in the U.S., we can… Continue reading Inside Case Behind Wrongful Conviction Doc ‘Southwest of Salem’

“Yet, the fact remains: Most of the people in civil commitment facilities, like Lieberman, sexually assaulted children or women. If released, some of these folks might harm again. Others will not. But regardless of that uncertainty, once they have completed their sentences, is it acceptable for our society to use a checklist, a psychological evaluation,… Continue reading How “Risk Assessment” Tools Are Condemning People to Indefinite Imprisonment

photo credit: the texas observer [Justice] Kennedy’s “frightening and high” line was based on a 1988 Department of Justice guide for treating sex offenders, which cited an unfounded conjecture in the magazine Psychology Today. Further studies have shown the ineffectiveness of residency restrictions. In 2003, the Minnesota Department of Corrections collected data on nearly 100… Continue reading Making the Case Against Banishing Sex Offenders

“Research shows that keeping some families together after children are abused can result in safety for the children and united families, when proper assessment and interventions are made. Even so, the usual suspect ‘child-protection professionals’ scapegoat the approach.”–Debbie Nathan Read the article by Richard Wexler in The Chronicle of Social Change.

“Today, scores of other caregivers are accused of in injuring or killing a baby by shaking every year. But some doctors and lawyers believe the syndrome is being diagnosed too frequently and that debate is playing out in courtrooms around the country. Over 200 cases have fallen apart since doctors started challenging the diagnosis, with… Continue reading A Syndrome on Trial

“In 2005, I came upon the story of Father Gordon MacRae in a series of articles by Pulitzer-Prize winning writer, Dorothy Rabinowitz in The Wall Street Journal. This was my first inkling that the case against this Catholic priest, that I and most others thought to be fairly and justly adjudicated, was in fact deeply… Continue reading The Father Gordon J. MacRae Story: Injustice in New Hampshire

Photo: Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Image “The United States imprisons a higher proportion of its population than any other developed country. The American incarceration rate is roughly 3.5 times as high as the median rate in Europe, according to a 2013 report from the European Council of Annual Penal Statistics. This is not because Americans commit more… Continue reading Expanding Incarceration Is Not the Best Way to Fight Rape Culture

Mark Makela for The New York Times Nearly 30 years ago, at 22, Mr. Harrell was arrested on suspicion of raping a teenage girl and later served four years in a New Jersey prison. But when he was released on parole, what amounted to his second sentence started: For the next two decades, he had… Continue reading Wrongfully Convicted of Rape, a New Jersey Man Finds More Punishment After Prison