| Our instincts
are to protect and defend defenseless children. It is a measure
of a civilized society. It is equally instinctive to
presume guilt. That tendency is even stronger when the accused
must prove a negative---that what he or she is accused of didn't
happen---and the accuser is a physician with a stack of degrees or,
equally potent, a child. These combinations have led to
countless criminal convictions: parents, day care providers,
teachers, neighbors---even when the charges cannot be supported by
objective scientific evidence, or when there was no physical evidence
at all to
support the claims. We're having second looks at many of these cases, acknowledging that we've convicted innocent people, destroyed families and ruined childhoods. A second look at the processes that led to these miscarriages of justice is essential, because unless we learn from our mistakes, we will continue to repeat them. LIVE CRIMINAL LAW INFORMATION
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Shaken Baby Syndrome
"The
great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate,
contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and
unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the
discomfort of thought." ~ John F. Kennedy, 35th president of US
1961-1963 (1917 - 1963)
The Shaky Science
of Shaken Baby Syndrome
Prosecuters have charged parents and caretakers with shaking infants to death. But how valid is that diagnosis, and how reliable is the evidence behind it? In yet another case that should never have been charged, Michael Hansen of Alexandria, MN, convicted of killing his infant daughter in 2004, has won a new trial. He was released on bail into the arms of his loved ones, telling the media, "I just want to be with my family." UPDATE: September 16, 2011 -- The prosecutor has dropped all charges against Mr. Hansen. He is a free man. Related: Ramsey County, MN is investigating the work of Dr. Michael McGee, who has served as the county's chief medical examiner for 26 years, after a Douglas County judge found he gave false testimony in a murder trial. McGee's testimony helped secure the conviction of Michael Hansen for the murder of his infant daughter in 2004. Douglas County Judge Peter Irvine found in July that McGee gave false testimony about infant skull fractures and about an accident that occurred six days before the baby died. Or was Dr. McGee just doing what was expected of him? It took a jury only 2 hours to acquit former daycare provider Deborah Parlock, of Chesterton, Indiana, of shaking a 6-month-old child in her care and causing his death. The prosecutions experts, doctors with the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, insisted that retinal bleeding meant the baby had been beaten, even though he had no bruises or fractures. (Yes, they get paid expert witness fees.) Fortunately, jurors are beginning to see through the lack of evidence that permeates SBS cases. A case that should never have been charged. The quasi-diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) started in the UK, and became a cottage industry for prosecution experts there before leaping like a wildfire across the Atlantic to the U.S. When Dr. Waney-Squier, a prominent British neuropathologist, re-examined the criteria she had used as a prosecution expert and realized it was wrong, she became the target of vicious personal and professional attacks. And, as with the SBS "diagnosis" itself, Scotland Yard has carried the fight to the US. Colin Welsh, lead investigator at Scotland Yard’s child abuse investigation command, told a US conference on SBS that defense experts should be banned from criminal and family court trials, because they confuse jurors and judges. Meanwhile, Dr. Waney-Squier warns that at least half of all parents tried over shaken baby syndrome have been wrongly convicted. Quentin Louis of Athens, Wisconsin, who has been jailed for nearly six years, is one step closer to having a second chance to prove he didn't shake his infant daughter to death in 2005. A local judge granted him a new trial in 2009 because the state's forensic pathologist changed his mind about the cause of the baby's injuries, but the state appealed and it took another two years for this decision, from the state court of appeals. Quick to convict, slow to clear. From the New York Times - Emily Bazelon examines the fierce disagreement and shift in mainstream medical thinking regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome. SBS Faces New Questions in Court. Shirley Ree Smith of Van Nuys, CA spent 10 years behind bars for the death of her grandson before her conviction was overturned. Now she waits on skid row as the courts sort out whether a jury's verdict — even if wrong — must prevail. A pawn in a legal chess match. Former foster mother Tenesia Brown looked ahead stoically for a full minute after a jury found her not guilty of murdering a baby in her care. But then the verdict visibly sank in, as she tearfully hugged her attorney. Her husband, Marcus, on a bench just behind her, bowed his head and wept. Fighting this charge for the past four years "was the toughest thing I've ever had to do because my wife was facing life in prison," Marcus Brown said after the verdict Friday night. Not any more. Tenesia Brown walked out of the Pinellas County criminal courts complex facing no criminal charges for the first time since 2006. And you wonder why people don't want to be foster parents? No good deed goes unpunished. An acquittal should have brought Brian Kalinowski's nightmare to an end. Instead, it continues for the 33-year-old Palatine, IL man found not guilty of shaking and seriously injuring his infant son. Kalinowski and his wife, who has not been implicated in any wrongdoing, still face charges they abused and neglected their son, says defense attorney Lawrence Lykowski. This despite a finding of not guilty from Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Etchingham. A spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney confirmed an abuse case against the couple is pending in juvenile court. They'll get you one way or another. Quentin Louis of Athens, WI and Tammy Millerleile of Wausau, WI, both in Marathon County, were convicted of fatally shaking babies in 2005 and 2002, respectively. But in August of 2009, Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Howard vacated Louis' conviction and granted him a new trial based on a ruling that suggests medical evidence in shaken-baby cases is suspect. Prosecutors are appealing the decision to retry the Louis case, but in September, 2009, Howard also authorized payments for expert witnesses to review Millerleile's conviction. Re-opening shaken baby cases to re-examine the science. Fatima Miah of London, England, accused of shaking her baby son to death, walked free from court after a judge ordered jurors to clear her of manslaughter. The judge said expert evidence was too divided for the jury to come to a conclusion as he threw out the charge. Legal experts said his decision would have serious implications for similar prosecutions up and down the country. The science is flawed and contradictory. More than 1,200 U.S. children are diagnosed with Shaken Baby Syndrome and one in four of those children die from it. Dr. Michael Laposata of Boston, MA believes in cases of potential Shaken Baby Syndrome, the medical community should perform a whole battery of blood tests rather than performing the simplest or most common tests to be absolutely certain of whether there's been child abuse. Too easy to play the hero. On the Thursday before Labor Day, 2007, while Julianna Caplan of Washington, DC was changing the diaper on one of her twins, she heard a dull thud. She turned around to see her other 8-month-old trying to push herself up from the floor, where she'd been playing, and knock her head. There were no bumps or bruises, but over the next few hours, the little girl acted fussy, then altogether out of sorts. After she began throwing up and drifting off to sleep, her parents grew concerned, called the doctor and ended up at Children's Hospital. The baby recovered fully within 24 hours, but Caplan and her husband, Greg, remain trapped in the District's frightening child-abuse system. Family Services Well Done, or Overdone? In the UK, new medical evidence could clear childminder (babysitter) Keran Henderson, who is serving a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of shaking an 11-month-old girl to death. That new evidence comes from this side of the Atlantic. Dr Chris Van Ee, professor of biomechanics at Wayne State University in Detroit, claims tests with crash dummies and corpses show that falling off a sofa -- as the Caplan twin accidentally did -- does far more damage than shaking. Conclusion: the science behind shaken baby syndrome is flawed.
The murder case against Jeffrey Galford of Elkins, WV for the death of an infant in his care has been dismissed. The child died in 2003. State Medical Examiner Dr. James Frost conducted an autopsy and ruled the death homicide as the result of shaken baby syndrome. The report, however, was not sent to the prosecutor until 2006, and Galford was indicted in 2007. In early 2008, just before trial was scheduled to begin, Dr. Frost reviewed the child's full medical history -- something he had made no effort to do before declaring the death a homicide or in the years thereafter. The baby's complex medical history led Dr. Frost to conclude no intentional act against the child could be proven. Why the 5-year wait to review the baby's medical history? Read
the British Medical Journal
Case Report and Editorial (pdf files - use Adobe Acrobat Reader)
The National Association of Medical Examiners (N.A.M.E.) Ad Hoc Committee on Shaken Baby Syndrome published its Position Paper on Fatal Abusive Head Injuries in Infants and Young Children in the American Journal of Forensic Pathology and Medicine in 2001. This Position Paper is repeatedly cited and relied on to prosecute people because it states that SBS is an accepted diagnosis. The Position Paper was rejected on peer review for lack of scientific basis -- but published anyway, since two of the authors were N.A.M.E. Board members. Click HERE to read the peer review rejection for yourself (pdf file - use Adobe Acrobat Reader). This is a publicly available document which was obtained from the Ken Marsh (see below) case file. In the UK, a review of nearly 300 cases in which parents were convicted of killing their young children has identified 28 where there was "sufficient cause for concern to warrant further consideration", the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, has told Parliament. A further 89 cases of "shaken baby syndrome" will be reconsidered in the light of a judgment from the Court of Appeal expected in 2005, Lord Goldsmith promised. Three pending prosecutions have already been abandoned "on the grounds that it was not safe to proceed". SBS: Dubious Diagnosis Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill were taken aback at results of a radiology study looking into early brain development. MRIs of normal, healthy infants found intracranial bleeds in 26% of the babies. Intracranial bleeding, which can cause serious brain damage or even death, is one of the hallmark characteristics of Shaken Baby Syndrome. Or is it? Dr. Patricia Moore, a former Harris County associate medical examiner accused of botching an autopsy that led to a young mother's imprisonment has come under scrutiny in several other cases in which her conclusions were later contested or revised. Moore attributed infant deaths to shaken baby syndrome at a rate considerably higher than the rate at which it happens in the general population. Biased Autopsies In what experts say is the first such ruling in the nation, a Greenup (Kentucky) Circuit Court judge has barred the prosecution from introducing expert testimony that a baby was injured by shaking, unless there is other evidence of abuse. Issuing identical rulings in two cases, Judge Lewis Nichols cited biomechanical studies that have concluded it's impossible for an adult to shake an infant hard enough to cause the injuries used to diagnose the syndrome -- hemorrhaging behind both retinas and hematomas, or pools of blood, in the membranes of the brain. Not Letting Doctors Diagnose Legal Conclusions Victims
of Faulty Diagnoses by Dr. Charles Smith
Toronto, Ontario (Canada) In Toronto, Ontario (Canada), errors were found in 20 of 45 autopsies, dating back as far as 1991, performed by former provincial pathologist Dr. Charles Smith. Twelve of those cases resulted in criminal convictions and one in a finding of not criminally responsible. The first to be exonerated was William Mullins-Johnson, who spent 12 years in prison for the rape and murder of his niece. A 2005 review of Dr. Charles Smith's autopsy and diagnosis found the the child had not been raped or strangled, but choked to death on her own vomit caused by a chronic stomach ailment. UPDATE: 10/15/07 - Mullins-Johnson officially found innocent. Sherry Sherrett, one of the 12, convicted of killing her own infant son, is seeking a full public inquiry into Dr. Smith's work. The 2006 review shows her son was not murdered. Louise Reynolds spent 2 years in jail awaiting trial after Dr. Smith said she stabbed her 7-year-old daughter, Sharon, to death with scissors. Charges were dropped after it was demonstrated little Sharon was mauled by a pit bull. In 1998, Dr. Smith accused Louise and Marco Trotta of suffocating their 4-month-old son, Paulo. Louise served 5 years in prison; Marco was sentenced to 15 years, and had served 9 years when the review indicated little Paulo suffocated on his bedding. CBC In Depth takes a closer look at Dr. Charles Smith: The Man Behind the Public Inquiry UPDATE: 2/9/08 - Dr. Smith South of the Border. On March 21, 2000, Christopher Fuller of Hamilton, Ohio told police his daughter Randi, almost 3 years old, choked on a glass of water and held her breath. But after a grueling interrogation that was not recorded, police claimed Fuller confessed to killing Randi when she resisted his attempt to sexually assault her. He was charged with capital murder, but the Hamilton authorities were apparently worried about getting the death penalty, so they brought in Dr. Death, Dr. Charles Smith of Ontario, Canada. Smith was already under investigation for finding crimes where none existed in the deaths of children. He came through for the Ohio boys. The jury not only convicted Fuller, they recommended death. Only Fuller's previously clean record saved him from execution, but he still languishes in prison, for the rest of his life. Dinesh Kumar was told in 1992 by his lawyers that the country's leading forensic pathologist - Charles Smith - was going to testify against him at his trial for murder in the death of his five-week-old baby, and that his chances of an acquittal were minuscule. Although he knew he was innocent of causing any harm to his son, Dinesh accepted an extraordinarily lenient sentence -- 90 days in jail -- and pled guilty to criminal negligence causing death. Now that Dr. Smith has been exposed as a quack, Dinesh is seeking to restore his good name. Link:
Dr.
Daryl Steiner of Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital has dedicated his
career to ferreting out cases of Shaken Baby Syndrome and leveling
abuse allegations against parents and caregivers -- 275 of them, so
far. "The ramifications of my diagnosis are huge," says Dr.
Steiner. Indeed, they are -- families torn apart, parents sent to
prison, to name a few. Everyone says Dr. Steiner is never
wrong. But he has been proven wrong twice recently. The fallibility of the
infallible doctor.
Saying defense attorneys were ineffective, the Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial Tuesday for a man convicted of fatally shaking his girlfriend's baby, who remained alive in a vegetative state for 12 years. The court's decision focused on brain images of the boy, Luther Deem. A defense expert didn't see them until the morning of trial, and a judge said that person was unqualified to interpret them. A fresh look at old evidence. After being accused of shaking a baby boy to death last October, Cypress, CA neighborhood day-care operator Lorrie Mae Stoddard lost her livelihood, her standing in the community and many nights of sleep. Prosecutors told a judge there was no evidence to back up the charges and the case was dismissed. Deputy Dist. Atty. Sonia Balleste said a recent, more in-depth brain analysis showed that 4-month-old Noah Samuel Gusto of Cypress did not die from being shaken and that he suffered two of three brain hemorrhages before Stoddard ever came in contact with him at the day-care center in her Cypress home. No shaking happened. Dr. Patricia Moore, a former Harris County associate medical examiner accused of botching an autopsy that led to a young mother's imprisonment has come under scrutiny in several other cases in which her conclusions were later contested or revised. Moore attributed infant deaths to shaken baby syndrome at a rate considerably higher than the rate at which it happens in the general population. Biased Autopsies UPDATE: Brandy Briggs, accused by Dr. Moore of shaking her baby son to death, followed her lawyer's advice in 1999 and pled guilty to injury to a child. Subsequent review demonstrated that the child died of natural causes, and was neither abused nor neglected. Now the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals has thrown out Briggs' conviction based on her lawyer's Deficient Performance . UPDATE: September 14, 2009 - The Harris County (Texas) Medical Examiner's office has quietly rewritten the results of a 1998 autopsy, prompting renewed innocence claims on behalf of a baby sitter sent to prison nearly a decade ago for allegedly shaking a 4-month-old infant hard enough to cause fatal injuries. The original autopsy classified the baby's death as a homicide and was used by prosecutors as a key piece of evidence against Cynthia Cash, now 53, a former nurse convicted of fatal injury to a child after 4-month-old Abbey Clements died after being rushed to the hospital from Cash's home. But the modified autopsy report made public in a new appeal calls the cause of death “undetermined” and found no evidence of “trauma” in the postmortem exam. DA continues to back Dr. Moore, a team player. Less than a month before Jamie and Ryan Page were to go on trial in Oshkosh, WI for homicide in the death of an infant for whom they provided day care, prosecutors have dismissed the charges. The state continues to allege that the Pages caused the baby's death by shaking him, but says it can't prove which of them did the shaking. Perhaps medical testimony in Audrey Edmunds' case (below) played a role. Charges Dropped. Audrey Edmunds, a former Waunakee, WI baby sitter imprisoned for nearly 10 years after being convicted in the shaken-baby death of a 7- month-old girl, is seeking a new trial, arguing that the scientific evidence used to convict her is no longer valid. "Since Audrey Edmunds' trial . . . a large body of new scientific evidence has emerged that supports her claim of innocence," according to a brief seeking a new trial for Edmunds filed by attorneys and law students for the Wisconsin Innocence Project. "Classic" symptoms not accurate. UPDATE: 1/26/07 - In a two-day hearing, six physicians challenged the medical validity of the evidence that convicted Audrey Edmunds in 1996. Among them was the forensic pathologist who testified against her at trial. No Confidence in SBS Diagnosis UPDATE: 2/22/07 - Audrey Edmunds says life would have crushed her by now, if not for her faith in God -- and her belief that she will soon be reunited with her daughters. The Human Toll of Flawed Science UPDATE: 2/23/07 - In tense, combative testimony, a medical witness for the state forcefully rejected recent studies that raise doubts about shaken baby syndrome. The combative testimony of Dr. Betty Spivack reflects the divide among physicians in shaken-baby cases. One camp believes certain signs and symptoms are proof of abuse, while the other side argues that such indicators also can be seen in children who've been sick or had minor accidents. Defending the Conviction UPDATE: 2/24/07- One of the physicians who cared for Natalie Beard at University (now UW) Hospital in the final hours of her life testified Friday he's certain that the 7-month-old was shaken to death and that the injury occurred shortly before she came to the hospital. "She died from inflicted traumatic brain injury -- that is, she was shaken," said Dr. William Perloff, retired head of pediatric intensive care for the hospital. "In her case, there was evidence of her head hitting a surface." UPDATE:
1/24/08: Twelve
years after she was sent to prison on charges of shaking
a baby to death, a former Waunakee day-care provider should get a new
trial, a state appeals court has ruled. New
evidence in the case "shows that there has been a shift in
mainstream medical opinion since Edmunds' trial as to the cause of the
types of injuries Natalie (Beard) suffered," the three-judge panel
unanimously ruled. The Attorney
General is mulling whether to appeal the ruling.
UPDATE: The Attorney General decided not to appeal. Audrey is finally a free woman. Three days before he was to go on trial for the shaking death of his infant son, Andy Houser of Manchester, Tennessee was summoned to his lawyer's office. Andy Houser had been a murder defendant for nearly two years. The allegation had already cost him heavily: his marriage dissolved, a hoped-for career in law enforcement evaporated, numerous friends abandoned him and strangers accusingly stared at him. And his son was dead, a victim of shaken baby syndrome, police said. Houser knew life could get worse. In three days, prosecutors planned to spell out their explanation of how Ethan died at the hands of the father. A forensic pathologist would testify that Ethan's small brain was bruised on both sides and that clotted blood was present, a sign of fresh injury. In addition, tiny blood vessels on the surface of the baby's right eye had ruptured. Both are telltale signs of a shaken baby. Defense attorney Robert Carter handed his puzzled client a piece of paper, a fax from the state medical examiner's office. Near the top, in capital letters, were three powerful words, whose force still reverberate strongly in Coffee County: "Amended Autopsy Report." Suspicion adds horror to father's grief for his baby
Ken Marsh Ken Marsh spent 21 years in
California prisons for a crime that never happened. He was
convicted in 1984 of murdering 2-year-old Kenneth Buell based on
testimony of treating physicians -- with no independent corroboration
-- who were seeking to protect themselves from malpractice
claims.
His conviction
was reversed without an evidentiary hearing based on insufficiency of
the medical expert evidence.
Ken Marsh
and his attorney, Tracy Emblem, have generously made available
extensive forensic resources utilized in his case for the benefit of
other innocent people facing similar charges. Visit Free Ken Marsh
Unfounded
Physical/Mental Abuse Allegations
In
April, 2007, an infant suffered
cardiac arrest shortly after arriving at the day care operated by
Lisa Randall in suburban Phoenix, Arizona. He was rushed to the
hospital but died a few days later. In November of that year,
Lisa Randall was indicted by a grand jury for murder, based on the
testimony of pediatricians who said the baby died due to blunt force
trauma to his head. When former DA Andrew Thomas faced stiff
opposition in his bid for re-election, he upped the ante by seeking the
death penalty against Lisa. He lost, but Lisa still faced being
sentenced to death. Finally, three years after the child's death,
two defense experts and a prosecution expert agreed that the child died
from natural causes, and the charges against Lisa Randall were
dismissed. It's
not an isolated incident in Maricopa County.
On October 2, 2006, Hannah Overton of Corpus Christi, TX and her husband rushed their foster son to a hospital, where the child died of salt poisoning related to an eating disorder that led him to gorge and to consume strange objects. Less than a year later, Hannah was convicted of capital murder based on the theory that she waited too long--less than an hour--before rushing the boy to the hospital. Bennett Gershman, a nationally recognized expert on prosecutorial misconduct, reviewed Hannah's case and stated, “A conviction for capital murder can’t rest on such a flimsy, almost incredibly thin reed, as this one rests on. It rests on sand." In
2005, Suzanne Holdsworth of Seacroft, Leeds, UK, was jailed for life
for a little boy's murder. But a damning investigation by John Sweeney,
a reporter with the London Daily Mail,
found police had missed key evidence. Days after being found not guilty
at re-trial and released, Suzanne told her haunting story to the man
who helped clear her. Justice Delayed.
On Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008, exactly four years after officials with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services raided the primitive therapeutic camp in Smithville known as Woodside Trails and removed nearly 40 boys, camp administrator Betty Lou "Bebe" Gaines settled a federal lawsuit against nine DFPS employees. In her suit, Gaines charged the officials had deprived her of due process rights in branding her neglectful of her wards, closing the camp, and effectively ending her career. Vindication. Madison
County, Mississippi officials have dropped murder charges against
Hattie Douglas in connection with the death of her son Kadarrius.
Initial
test results showed that Douglas' son had an alcohol
level of 0.4 percent when he died May 11, 2006. But an independent
pathologist's report said tests came back with conflicting results. The
independent pathologist ruled the child died of
pneumonia. A doctor
prescribed an iron supplement for Kadarrius, which contained a small
percentage of alcohol. Hattie still faces
a battle to get her four other children back.
Cases to Consider
John Michael Harvey Eleven years into a 40 year sentence, John's innocence is finally being examined. But the former
Assistant DA who hid evidence and coached a child to lie
is off the hook.
UPDATE: John Michael Harvey Freed A
Harris County,
Texas prosecutor says faulty physical exams performed by a former nurse
may have resulted in wrongful conviction of some defendants in child
sex abuse cases. 170 Potential
Wrongful Convictions For James Rodriguez, the only way to freedom was to confess to sex crimes he — and one of his alleged victims — says he did not commit. Predator or Prey? San
Joaquin County, California Superior Court Judge Stephen Demetras
ordered the release of 36-year-old Peter Rose after 10 years of
incarceration. Convicted of sexually assaulting a 13 year-old
Lodi
girl in 1994, Rose was sentenced to 27 years in prison. With no
history of violent crime or sexual assault, Rose has maintained his
innocence from the beginning. DNA testing has proved him
right. It
has also shown the tragic results when police browbeat a child into
accusing the person they have already decided is guilty.
Sylvester's case is yet another example of how pressuring children to make false allegations leads to wrongful convictions. In 1984, two young girls were molested by their cousin who was also a juvenile. Their grandmother, thinking the cousin would be sent to prison, convinced the girls to accuse Sylvester Smith instead. Now grown, the victims have recanted and are supported by the trial testimony of one of them -- she told the defense attorney her grandmother said to accuse Smith.
Link:  Did Daddy
Do It? New Evidence Calls an "Ironclad" Conviction into Question Link:
Defense
of Child Molestation Charges
by Joel Erik Thompson, Esq. LINK:
A WGBH Forum Network Lecture - Remembering Trauma Richard J. McNally, professor, psychology, Harvard Belle Adler, professor, Northeastern School of Journalism Are
horrific experiences indelibly fixed in a victim's memory? Or does the
mind protect itself by banishing traumatic memories from consciousness?
How victims remember trauma is the most controversial issue in
psychology today, spilling out of consulting rooms and laboratories to
capture headlines, rupture families, provoke legislative change, and
influence criminal trials and civil suits. A clinician and laboratory
researcher, Richard McNally challenges the ready acceptance of a notion
he says goes beyond common sense. He contends that traumatic
experiences are indeed unforgettable and the evidence for repressed
memories is surprisingly weak.
Re-examining the Process
 Michael Brock, MA,
LLP, CSW, examines the use of "facilitated communication," or FC,
a process in which a "facilitator" holds the hand of a disabled person
over a keyboard so the non-vocal person can "communicate" by typing
messages. As FC gained popularity among families with autistic
children, a flood of false sexual and physical abuse allegations
against parents and siblings followed. Studies have determined that FC
is invalid, junk science, because it is the facilitator, not the
disabled person, who determines what is typed. Yet prosecutors
and judges ignore laws that require evidence to have scientific
validity, and allow cases built on this demonstrated junk to
proceed. Has
the law become an inconvenient truth?Michael Brock,MA, LLP, CSW, Stating the Obvious. (Click the title; document is in Word format.) The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals finds the obvious, that a man whose teenage daughter falsely accused him of sexual abuse to keep him from marrying a woman she detested received ineffective assistance from lawyers who failed to investigate the daughter's credibility. Also from Michael Brock,MA, LLP, CSW and Michael Trager, J.D., Hypothetical Questions for Cross Examining Mental Health Witnesses in Sex Abuse Cases. (Click the title; document is in Word format.) "Must reading" for attorneys representing clients charged with child sex abuse with no physical evidence of abuse.
In November, 2003, Pennsylvania voters
voted
to deny criminal
defendants the right to confront their accusers in court. They
probably felt there would be no cost to themselves.
But if we let witnesses avoid accountability in criminal proceedings,
we all will pay a high price, eventually. No Accountability
More Resources 
False
Memory/Recovered
Memory
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