Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Martha Martha Martha


Top lawyer wins nomination for Kennedy's seat.
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8 comments:

democommie said...

Martha Coakley is filth. She let the Amiraults rot in jail for years rather than admit that their trials and convictions in the Fells Acre Daycare case were not just wrong, but politically motivated.

6:10 AM
No Blood for Hubris said...

The children concerned, now adults, did not recant, quite the contrary, a fact which is not widely known.

The "Kids are unbelievable" publicity this case generated made it even harder to prosecute similar cases of child abuse.

10:25 AM
No Blood for Hubris said...

But their accusers - now young adults - insist that Amirault is the monster they said he was during his trial. Their testimony, which included stories of Amirault dressing up as a clown and raping children with knives, and the ritualistic slayings of animals, made up the bulk of the state's case.

His sister and mother, Violet Amirault, were convicted during a separate trial and were released from prison in 1995. Violet Amirault died in 1997.

Amirault victim Jennifer Bennett, now married with two children of her own, said earlier this week that her stomach was in knots just thinking about his release. She said she still has flashbacks, wakes up in a cold sweat . . .

Larry Hardoon, the chief prosecutor in the case, said he continues to believe Amirault committed the crimes. He defended the interviewing techniques used by investigators, which were later criticized as leading and suggestive to the children.

"Anybody that takes the time to understand and pay attention to what the actual facts were - not the mischaracterization of facts that gets spread by the defense - the convictions have always been upheld as sound and fully supportable,'' he said.

"I believe he had a fair trial and that the system worked the way it's supposed to work. I've never seen or heard anything from the beginning of this case to today - that makes me think otherwise,'' he said.

10:36 AM
No Blood for Hubris said...

(the above should have been in quotes)

10:37 AM
democommie said...

No Blood For Hubris:

I'm aware of all that, I lived in the Boston area for over 3o years. There are plenty of "experts" on both sides of this story. Bottom line for me is that there was never, afaia, any child that came home from the daycare that complained.

I was sexually abused as a child and I kept quiet, because I was made to feel guilty. But, and it's a huge "but", I was never physically harmed.

I simply can't reconcile the horror stories told by those coached children with the fact that the abuse was said to have gone on for as long as it did.

7:28 AM
No Blood for Hubris said...

Well, I have frequently worked with kids and adults who were abused for years and years and did not tell. Case in point would be Miss America, incested since early childhood, didn't come out about it until she was in her forties or fifties. I think I blogged about her some time ago, I will try to find it.

2:27 PM
No Blood for Hubris said...

So I have re-posted the article on Marilyn van Derbur, above, incested over 13 years by her father, and waited decades to come out about it.

2:38 PM
democommie said...

No Blood For Hubris:

I am aware, also, of all of the repressed memory information, which I believe to be accurate. I didn't tell anyone about the abuse that I suffered until I was in my thirties. I know that shame can be a very powerful incentive to keep secrets.

My disagreement with the Fell's Acre case is based on the inconsistencies in the case and the outright prosecutorial misconduct that occurred during and after the trial.

The fact that the Amiraults were offered deals, after being sent to prison, which they turned down for years is telling.

Please don't think that I excuse child abuse, spousal abuse or any sort of sexual abuse in any way.

8:43 AM

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