A Replay of the Salem Witch Trials Before Our Eyes

We have three, politically-motivated, criminal prosecutions going on right now that remind us of the Fells Acre Day Care Case in Massachusetts where an innocent man, Gerald Amirault was charged with molesting 19 children, and his mother, Violet Amirault, who owned the center, was also charged. Gerald's sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, was charged with 10 counts of abuse. In the 1986 trial, Gerald was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 40 years in state prison. In the two subsequent trials, Violet and Cheryl were each convicted and sentenced to 8 to 20 years in a Massachusetts state prison. At both trials the children testified in open court sitting directly in front of the jury with their backs to the defendants and their faces to the jurors. These convictions were eventually overturned, but the people involved were totally ruined. Until now, this was one of the most egregious cases of prosecutorial misconduct since the Salem Witch trials.

The three prosecutions I find similar are the Duke rape case, the Border Agents case and the Scooter Libby trial. Each situation reeks of politics. In the Duke case, D.A. Nifong was elected by the largely black electorate who rewarded him for charging the white students.

In the Border Agents case, it appears that Homeland Security has a policy of sacrificing Border Agents who use force trying to stop illegal-immigrant drug-smugglers in order to placate Mexico and to appeal to future Mexican-American voters.

In the Scooter Libby Trial, opponents of the Bush Administration are trying to get at him through Libby and, possibly, through Cheney. The Joe Wilson lies collapsed like a house of cards, and the liberal-left is very angry at anyone who played a role in exposing him.

Unfortunately, we have several situations where no good deed goes unpunished. We thought there was hope for the Duke young men when Nifong recused himself and was then brought up on charges before the North Carolina Bar Association, but it appears that there is an effort to find something with which to charge the students so North Carolina can save face and also avoid a massive civil suit.

From Liestoppers (Excerpt):

In a case that needs no additional irony, the prosecutor who decided to retry Alan Gell, despite evidence of his actual innocence and prosecutorial misconduct in withholding that evidence, will now replace Defendant Nifong as prosecutor of the Hoax.

Citing the conflict of interest created by his upcoming trial before the State Bar Disciplinary Hearing Committee, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has requested that a special prosecutor be appointed by Attorney General Roy Cooper. In a press conference today, AG Cooper announced that he has granted Defendant Nifong’s request, effectively ending Nifong’s reign as Hijacker of the Hoax. Longtime prosecutor Jim Coman, who is the head of the NC Attorney General’s Special Prosecution Unit, as well as the former head of the SBI lab, and Mary Winstead will be the primary attorneys assigned to the case, according to Cooper. Promising to seek truth and justice while respecting all those involved, Cooper stated that the special prosecutors would approach the case with eyes wide open on evidence and closed to everything else.

If the hoax proceeds to trial, it will not be Coman's first attempt at placing innocent men behind bars. In 2003, despite the revelation that prosecutors David Hoke and Debra Graves withheld evidence that exonerated Alan Gell of murder charges that had sent him to death row, Coman decided to put Mr. Gell on trial for a second time. Later Coman would testify at the State Bar trial of Hoke and Graves to the effect that withholding evidence was standard policy in the Attorney General's office.

Oh by the way, the absurdity of the Fells Acre Day Care case mentioned above, was one of several ridiculous cases involving alleged sexual abuse at daycare centers in Massachsetts, New Jersey and California. All the people involved were innocent, but all were ruined by the proceedings. In the Fells case, Democrat D.A. Harshbarger actually had children tell fantastic stories which included: being abused by a clown and a robot in a secret room; and animals being sacrificed. One girl claimed Gerald Amirault had penetrated her anus with the twelve-inch bladed knife.

In the Scooter Libby trial, we have Prosecutor Fitzgerald charging Libby with lying about which of dozens of people first told him of a person's name in a situation where no crime was committed. He also faces ruin.