Restorative justice for sex offenders: Please join us

Important Hearing for the Smith-Allen Case

photo credit: jim d’entremont

The first hearing for the new-trial motion for the Smith-Allen (Head Start) case will take place Thursday (1/27/22) at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

The hearing will be broadcast on Zoom. Here is the link.

Let …

Rethinking the ‘Sex Offender’ Label

Photo by Remain Anonymous via Flickr

‘Victim advocates and prosecutors argued that replacing the term “sex offender” with different terminology “minimizes harm.” Victim advocates, including those currently on the SOMB, had argued they suffer lifelong consequences as victims and therefore …

Lorain County prosecutor takes step to revisit infamous 1990’s Head Start sex case

The Lorain Morning Journal

“Both Allen and Smith professed innocence, and the two said they had never met prior to being charged in connection with the case. Attorneys for Allen and Smith have argued that experts — since the 1994 …

Lorain DA may request that the convictions of Joseph Allen and Nancy Smith be vacated

The Lorain Chronicle

“ELYRIA — Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson is considering going to court to request that the criminal convictions of Joseph Allen and Nancy Smith, convicted of child sexual abuse in the Head Start case of the early …

The State Convicted Him of Child Abuse. A Medical Expert Said It Was Likely Diaper Rash

Stock photo via Getty Images

“Newton’s theory of the crime—the basis of the prosecution’s case—was impossible, according to Winfield’s appellate legal team.

“During the 2018 evidentiary hearing, Winfield’s attorneys presented testimony by physician and burn expert Stephen Milner. He had …

It’s Time to Revisit the Satanic Panic

Accusations of abuse at McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, Calif., became a national spectacle.Credit…Lacy Atkins/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images

“Early in the 1980s, baseless conspiracy theories about cults committing mass child abuse spread around the country. Talk shows and …

Justice Still Denied for Victims of Day Care Sex Abuse Witch Trials

“But before human rights groups here and in Europe focus their attention far in the past and far afield, they would do well to seek apologies, restitution, and justice for the victims of witch hunts much closer in time and …

Stranger Danger

Please consider joining us on March 5 (Friday) at 11:15am (EST) with historian Paul Renfro about his fascinating new book: Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State (Oxford University Press, 2020).

You can sign-up here (it only …

Rest in Peace Donald Connery

We were deeply saddened last Friday to receive a message from Don’s daughter, informing us that her wonderful father had left us the Monday before.

I first met Don 24 years ago, at a conference about wrongful convictions in Salem, …