Author: rbchatelle

This is a “ritual abuse” case in Buffalo that never received any national publicity. There may be many more cases like this one. Even experts in the history of ritual abuse have no idea how many innocent people were accused, and how many still might be imprisoned. Read the full story in The Buffalo News.

“In a decision Tuesday, acting state Supreme Court Justice Teresa Corrigan granted Jesse Friedman a hearing to determine whether he is actually innocent, saying the proceeding could be scheduled for early 2015. She also rejected Friedman’s bid to overturn his conviction based on other arguments….” http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/jesse-friedman-granted-request-for-hearing-on-innocence-claim-in-child-sex-abuse-case-1.9743382

“The actual cause of death is believed to have been a short fall from a piece of play equipment onto a carpeted garage floor. The prosecution has yet to decide upon appeal or retrial. http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2014/12/23/new-york-law-journal-new-medical-knowledge-debunks-shaken-baby-conviction/

photo credit: jim d’entremont Without the tireless efforts of the National Center for Reason and Justice, Bernard Baran would have died unknown and without exoneration in prison. We rely on your help to continue our work. Please consider making a donation From WBUR in Boston: http://www.wbur.org/2014/12/23/the-remembrance-project-bernard-baran.,

“Lawrence Brose’s five-year battle with the United States was always about more than child pornography. “For his fellow artists, many of them skeptical of the government’s allegations, Brose’s criminal prosecution was also about freedom of speech and expression.” From the Buffalo News: http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/courts/5-year-battle-for-brose-ends-with-2-years-probation-over-obscenity-charge-20141217 More articles about the Brose case: Brose admirers seek leniency in obscenity… Continue reading Lawrence Brose Case Finally Over

“There is something terribly wrong with a justice system that allows an inordinate amount of power to reside in the hands of one office that not only has no real accountability or oversight, but is insulated from the consequences of its actions by court-granted immunity. And no, I am not talking about Supreme Court justices,… Continue reading Are Prosecutors Above the Law?

“Unfortunately, under the worthy mandate of protecting victims of sexual assault, procedures are being put in place at colleges that presume the guilt of the accused. Colleges, encouraged by federal officials, are instituting solutions to sexual violence against women that abrogate the civil rights of men. Schools that hold hearings to adjudicate claims of sexual… Continue reading The College Rape Overcorrection

But extensive investigations revealed little to no truth to the satanic ritual abuse panic. The McMartin Preschool trial ended in 1990 with no convictions, even after the government threw more than $15 million at prosecuting it. In 1992, FBI agent Kenneth Lanning, in his report on satanic ritual abuse, declared that satanic ritual abuse wasn’t… Continue reading The Real Victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse

Like satanic abusers, and communists before them, children who molest were alleged to be legion; if we didn’t see them, it was because we were in denial. They “make all of us uncomfortable,” MacFarlane wrote in 1996—”so uncomfortable, we’ve had to deny their existence and/or minimize their behavior until now. We’ve called their behavior ‘exploration’… Continue reading Lena Dunham Wasn’t a Pedophile, and Neither Were You

“Is Cheit’s revisionism convincing? Much of his analysis, especially of the McMartin and Michaels cases—which take up more than a third of the book—relies on materials to which the reader does not have ready access, such as trial transcripts, investigation records, and author interviews. Thus, whether the book succeeds in making a dent in the… Continue reading The Return of Moral Panic–Ross Cheit’s book reviewed