February 28, 2018

Titanic Satanic Panic

Some decades ago there was a society-wide spasm of utter madness in which obviously innocent people were accused of being Satanists, rounded up, and imprisoned by the hundreds. Some of these people still rot in prison to this day, but now there are two fewer of them, courtesy of the work of the Innocence Project.

I hadn't been familiar with this case, but to judge from this twitter thread from an OK attorney, it exhibits many of the standard features (a lurid, implausible theory of "ritual" crime, a bribed jailhouse informant, a corrupt police detective, dubious Satan "expert," and a crooked prosecutor who fought tooth and nail to prevent the DNA test that finally exonerated them and then tried to keep them in prison anyway on a preposterous technicality.)

God bless the Innocence Project, but shame on us.

Posted by Dr. Frank at February 28, 2018 07:22 PM