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Ritual Abuse Links — Witchhunt InformationKern County, the setting for MEAN JUSTICE, was the nation’s prosecutorial birthplace for a wave of large-scale “molestation ring” and ritual abuse cases that eventually ripped through the nation, the most famous of which was the McMartin Preschool case in Los Angeles, and some of which persist to this day (as in Wenatchee, Washington). No place investigated and prosecuted more such cases than Kern County; most of the cases have been discredited with most of the convicted going free — after many years behind bars. Coercion of child witnesses, bogus medical evidence, and the hiding of evidence of innocence in the possession of Kern County authorities lay at the root of these false convictions — for which no one in law enforcement has ever been held accountable. What follows is an assortment of links for learning more about such cases and the bitter lessons they offer. MEAN JUSTICE excerpt on the Bakersfield Witchhunt cases. Additional background on the Kniffen case is available, courtesy of the Bakersfield Californian newspaper. Power to Harm, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s in-depth examination of errors and improprieties in the investigation and prosecution of dozens of citizens in Wenatchee, Washington, where allegations that massive rings of molesters and ritual abusers were preying on children have nearly destroyed the town. The case has a startling resemblance to the dozens of now-discredited prosecutions in Kern County, the setting for MEAN JUSTICE. Breezy Point — Another enormous ritual abuse case against children that created enormous panic in Bucks County, Penn., ground to a halt when a highly principled district attorney refused to be sucked in and instead raised questions about the quality of evidence and investigation laid before him. He ended up throwing the case out — a courageous act in the mid 1980s, when satanic panic had gripped much of the nation. He later recalled:
40 ritual abuses cases that led to community hysteria, massive prosecutions, and that produced wrongful convictions, most of them overturned or discredited. FBI Report on Ritual Abuse Cases This report examining whether or not large-scale ritual and satanic abuse exists, written by Kenneth Lanning, head of the FBI’s behavioral sciences unit, remains the definitive analysis on the subject. He builds a meticulous and unbiased review, concluding, in essence, that they are NOT out there. Courtesy of the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance website. Another federal study, this one by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, also found no evidence to support claims by certain therapists and their patients of a satanic underground specializing in child molestation (or any other criminal activity). McMartin Preschool — The most notorious and well-known of the original ritual abuse cases, McMartin helped start a national panic, only to be discredited years later. It followed the first of the Bakersfield Witchhunt cases chronologically — and in its pattern of therapists, detectives and prosecutors coercing false information from young children, inadvertently abusing them in the name of saving them. Frontline — Innocence Lost The PBS series documents one of the major ritual abuse cases — the Little Rascals day-care case in North Carolina. Extensive site also contains information on many other cases. San Diego County Grand Jury report on official improprieties and false accusations in ritual abuse cases. The report was made in the wake of the notorious and, by most accounts (including the jury’s), unjust prosecution of a developmentally disabled man named Dale Akiki. Jeopardy in the Courtroom — Psychologists Stephen J. Ceci and Maggie Bruck have written a definitive book on the coercive and suggesting questioning of child witnesses that led to most of the false witchhunt convictions. Bruck was a key witness in many of the overturned Bakersfield Witchhunt convictions. She was lauded by judges for her fairness, objectivity and careful opinions, making her one of the most credible experts around on this difficult and emotional subject. Click here for excerpts. Witchhunt Links page — A variety of links to sites related to ritual abuse, some of them good, some of questionable merit, but worth a look for those interested in the subject. Elizabeth Loftus — A collection of articles from the most famous expert — from the debunker side of the question — on the phenomenon of repressed memories. Loftus’s work has been instrumental in showing how well-meaning (and less-than-honorable) investigators, therapists and prosecutors have coerced children into making false accusations in abuse cases while mistaking these accusations for “repressed” memories coaxed to the surface. The research of Loftus and a growing number of other psychologists and memory researchers suggests that the vast majority of these so-called repressed memories are unreliable, and that the sort of leading and suggestive questioning typically done by investigators and others probing child abuse cases is very likely to produce false information. The Bakersfield cases have been cited as models of how NOT to question children. How do these Witchhunt cases make it into court? — An overview of research on the coercion of child witnesses. Fells Acres — Also known as the Amirault case, this Massachusetts case is one of the most notorious and twisted of the Witchhunt prosecutions, in which one defendant was exonerated, another died of cancer while awaiting the result of her appeal (and was posthumously exonerated), and a third — whose evidence of innocence is just as compelling as the defendant who was freed — remains in prison. Read the latest developments in A Juror Has Second Thoughts, from the Wall Street Journal, and this site, by one of the Amiraults’ appellate attorneys, that gives a complete synopsis of testimony in favor of exoneration.
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