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Coakley Summary?

[Note: Friends of Justice is a personal blog. I speak only for myself.]

Dear Friend of Justice,

I was contacted by a reader who’d like a short summary (with references) of Martha Coakley’s probelmatic career as a prosecutor and as Attorney General. He is looking for something neutral in tone that could be presented to the unconverted.

I don’t have the time to pull something together, as I’m leaving very early in the morning for a ten-day trip to Minnesota.

Do any of you have anything that fits the bill? Might someone be interested in taking a crack at pulling something together?

I think such a summary should include discussion of:

1. The Louise Woodward case. I am not an expert on this one. The Judge (Hillaire Zobel) reduced the verdict, sentenced Woodward to time served, and let her go home.

2. The Ray and Shirley Souza case. One of the classic witch hunt cases. Very problematic. Coakley was the prosecutor. See Mark Pendergrast’s account.

3. The Amirault case. Her involvement began after she was elected DA of Middlesex County. To refresh your memory, go to my Amirault Chronology and search for Coakley.

4. Her decision to prosecute Paul Shanley based soley on the recovered “repressed” memory testimony of a disturbed individual who had received a huge financial settlement from the Catholic Church. This is tricky, because the press has convinced most people that Shanley was guilty. But he is not.

5. Her recent signing on Massachusetts onto an amicus before the US Supreme Court supporting absolute immunity for prosecutors.

I’m sure I’m leaving out some important stuff. Anyway, if you have something or would like to put together something, email me at bobchatelle@gmail.com. I will have email access next week during normal business hours.

-Bob Chatelle

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Coakley Summary?”

  1. Jane Brennan says:
    December 10, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    Here is an article by Ann Coulter. She is writing about Martha
    http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34772

  2. Bruce Clairmont says:
    December 10, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    Bob,

    Let’s not forget Michael O’Laughlin. Last I heard she’s trying to bring his case before the US Supreme Court.
    I’d love a crack at her if I wasn’t so busy preparing an affidavit in support of my own new trial motion.

  3. Hugo S. Cunningham says:
    December 10, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    Like Jane “Not-so” Swift, Coakley grew up in Berkshire County, site of the judicial gay-bashing of Bernard Baran and other prosecutorial travesties. (If possible, Berkshire County’s “criminal justice” is even worse than Middlesex County’s.) Swift stayed in Berkshire County to start a political career, but Coakley moved east after graduating from Williams College (per her bio in Wikipedia). The office of Scott Harshbarger had its own problems, but I wonder if Coakley brought in some baggage from Berkshire County?
    ‘

  4. Hugo S. Cunningham says:
    December 13, 2009 at 11:45 pm

    A friend of a friend:

    >said a judge reprimanded (Coakley?) for the Middlesex DA having two standards of prosecution: one for rich whites and the other for poor folk of color.

    but my source didn’t get the judge’s name.

    Can anyone ID this incident?