News

Yesterday I watched an excellent panel discussing the evidence for ending the sex-offender registries. If you were unable to tune in, you can now watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQUJR9X-kvM&t=621shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQUJR9X-kvM&t=621s

From Bill Dobbs of the Dobbs Wire The Dobbs Wire:  A rare event about the sex offense registry – it’s purpose and effectiveness, whether there’s a need, and if it should it dismantled!  Presenters:  Miriam Aukerman is one of the country’s most talented litigators against sex offense registration laws, co-counsel on a landmark 6th Circuit… Continue reading The Evidence-Based Case for Ending Sex-Offender Registries

“I sat in the prison medical unit across from Richard,* bound to his wheelchair, supplemental oxygen supply at the ready, almost three years to the day after he was granted compassionate release. We went over the list again. Relatives: public housing. Nursing home: too close to a school. Apartment: too much money; not wheelchair accessible.… Continue reading Pushed Out and Locked in

[Angela Piazza/for Statesman] “What do you do when you are 25 years old and a county like Williamson County comes after you and you don’t have any money?” –Troy Mansfield A chilling case of cruel and unusual prosecutorial misconduct. Read the article by Tony Piohetski in the Austin American-Statesman. h/t Bill Dobbs of the Dobbs… Continue reading A life of Shame

(bigstock) On August 24, we posted the following article from the Washington Post. The authors have requested that we repost the article with the following preface: On October 17, 2019, after a two-week civil trial in Arlington County, Virginia, a seven-member jury found Galen Baughman to be a so-called “sexually violent predator” (SVP). Galen was… Continue reading Should Galen Baughman Spend his Life in Prison?

[Great news from Mark Pendergrast] Elsie Oscarson is free! After 21 years in prison, Elsie Oscarson was finally released on September 2, 2019. She was granted a new trial, but because it would be rolling the dice one more time, she took an Alford plea, which allows her to maintain her innocence, but she must… Continue reading Elsie Oscarson Update

Houston Chronicle In the Texas courthouse 100 miles east of Dallas that day in September 2012, the prosecutor turned to his expert witness and asked whether he believed the child’s injuries could have been the result of an accident. “The pattern of her burn injuries is what I would call a forced immersion,” the expert,… Continue reading Burned by ‘bad science’

Scott Dalton for USA TODAY “In a case that came down to one man’s word against another’s, jurors believed the police officer. Because of his prior offenses, Vara was sentenced to 25 years in prison. “What happened to Vara has been unconstitutional for more than 50 years. “The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that… Continue reading Hundreds of police officers have been labeled liars. Some still help send people to prison.

“In 1973, the idea of repressed memories became popularized with the publication of Sybil, a “nonfiction” book by journalist Flora Rheta Schreiber. Schreiber claimed that under psychiatric treatment, a patient whom she called Sybil recalled severe abuse by her mother, abuse that later manifested as 16 different personalities that all lived within her. The book… Continue reading Repressed Memories are Back!

Houston Chronicle “Swept up in a wave of extraordinary child sex abuse claims in the 1980s and early 1990s, prosecutors across the country charged dozens of parents and caregivers with appalling-sounding acts despite scant physical evidence. Suggestive, leading questioning by untrained police and counselors produced outlandish accusations, including claims of bizarre satanic rituals. Yet an… Continue reading The Wrongful Conviction of Bruce Perkins