Opposition to Differential Response Dealt Heavy Blow

“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

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A Grievous Error in Judge Joseph LaPlante’s Court

In a sentencing hearing weeks after the trial, Judge Arthur Brennan sentenced MacRae to a term of 67 years in prison – more than thirty times the two-year maximum sentence proposed to MacRae pre-trial, deals that the priest rejected citing …

Could Removing Brock Turner’s Judge Hurt Poor and Minority Defendants?

Jason Doiy/The Recorder via AP

“When we as a community reprimand or condemn a judge for engaging in such a holistic analysis and for exercising discretion, such efforts can have a chilling effect on judicial courage and compassion,” the letter …

Anatomy of a Snitch Scandal

Photo: Jeff Gritchen/The OC

Alexandra Natapoff, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and the nation’s leading expert on the use of snitches, said the fact that Orange County officials engaged in unconstitutional behavior similar to what …

Anderson’s ‘dying wish’ revisits controversial case

(AP Photo/Barry Chin-Pool)

According to Amirault, Baker spoke to him in 2014 while he was campaigning for governor in the North End in Boston. “He made a commitment to me in front of my whole family that once he was …

Anatomy of Doubt

As this heartwrenching story from This American Life shows, police and prosecutors err not only in falsely accusing people who did not commit sex crimes. They also may disbelieve victims of sex crimes that really took place. This is more …

Springfield man is freed after 1992 rape conviction is overturned

Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

“Perrot’s conviction rested heavily on the analysis of a single hair found at the scene of the violent rape of his neighbor in Springfield. Perrot always maintained his innocence, and the victim, then 78 and now …

Guilty until proven innocent.

(Photo by John Anderson)

“Michael never confessed to the crime – because no sexual abuse of his cousin ever happened. The real story would be revealed years later when Stephanie admitted to lying (she believed) in order to help her …

Dishonest Prosecutors, Lots of Them

(Photo by John Anderson)

“Prosecutors who bend or even break the rules to win a conviction almost never face any punishment. But even given lax controls, the blatant and systemic misconduct in the Orange County district attorney’s office in Southern …

Conviction of Things Not Seen: The Uniquely American Myth of Satanic Cults

“Satanism lacks a Jones or Koresh. Satanism has no Jonestown, no Waco, no Kool-Aid, no casual point of reference. This is because Satanic cults, as imagined in popular culture, do not exist. Still, some places across the country—West Memphis, Arkansas; …