Shaken-baby syndrome: the doubts
In dozens of prosecutions each year, parents or caregivers are charged after infants who died under their care have been found to display supposedly infallible indicators of abuse — in particular,...
View ArticleMay 20 roundup
Interview with brewmaster of “Collaboration Not Litigation Ale” [Abnormal Use] New “public trust” theory emerges in climate change litigation [Sean Wajert, Jim Huffman] Who did the fact-checking?...
View ArticleJune 23 roundup
Michigan sex abuse prosecution of dad falls apart; it was premised on ultra-controversial technique of “facilitated communication” with autistic daughter [Detroit Free Press; Ted Frank/Point of Law]...
View ArticleOssian, Piltdown Man, the Hitler Diaries, and “Sybil”
A concocted “multiple personalities” tale wrecked many lives by launching a thousand bogus recovered memories of abuse, not a few of which made it to court. Debbie Nathan (“Satan’s Silence”) has a new...
View ArticleMedical roundup
Talking back to the “malpractice litigation is no big deal, docs should grin and bear it” theorists [David Sack, ACP via White Coat] “Worst states for medical malpractice risk” [White Coat] Jury...
View ArticleDecember 30 roundup
“Copyright troll Righthaven in its death throes, domain going up for auction” [Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing] Controversy over litigation finance continues [WaPo, NYPost] Presumably unrelated to above:...
View Article“Shaken-baby” horror
More evidence that innocent parents are in prison over infant deaths [Emily Bazelon, Slate; earlier here, etc.] Tweet Tags: child abuse, crime and punishment, expert witnesses “Shaken-baby” horror is a...
View ArticleLaw enforcement and prosecution roundup
Small favors dept.: police chiefs group supports use of drones, but concedes they probably shouldn’t be armed [USA Today; more on drones, Michael Kirkland, UPI, Paul Enzinna, PoL]. Earlier here, here,...
View ArticleAccuser recants in case that sent four women to prison
Four Texas women have been serving long prison terms since a 7-year-old and 9-year-old girl, nieces of one of them, accused them in a lurid tale of assault. Now, the younger accuser has grown up and...
View ArticleProsecution and police roundup
“‘Stand Your Ground’ task force offers no big changes to Florida law” [Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Bay Times] “Statutes of Limitations Apply Especially to Government Agencies” [Ilya Shapiro on Cato...
View Article“A child-custody catastrophe”
“They will spend 10 years and all their money on litigation because of their inability to agree on anything,” a therapist predicted accurately. Yet more unsettling: the mom leveled false abuse...
View ArticleA life blighted, a wrist slapped
In Hopewell, Va., Mr. Montgomery spent four years behind bars after Ms. Coast falsely accused him of a rape eight years earlier, when he was 14. Eventually she admitted she’d made it up. “Coast however...
View ArticleMartha Coakley runs for governor in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts attorney general is now running for governor of the state after losing a Senate run three and a half years ago, so this makes a good occasion to revamp a 2010 post slightly so as to...
View Article“It was our lives that were taken away”
The San Antonio Four, women released after more than a decade of imprisonment over child-abuse crimes they say they never committed, talk to NBC News. “Plea deals were offered, but they refused to...
View ArticleJanuary 10 roundup
Faking a Sept. 11 injury would seem basically as disgraceful as faking a war injury, no? [NY Post, Legal Ethics Forum; earlier on Ground Zero compensation here, here, here, here, here (2008 fraud),...
View ArticleMedical roundup
Oscar-winning “Dallas Buyers Club” should please libertarians and FDA reformers [David Boaz/Cato, Jack Hunter/Rare, Kyle Smith/Forbes] Don’t assume patent trolls won’t threaten pharma/biotech...
View ArticlePolice and prosecution roundup
As condition of bail, federal magistrate orders arrestee to recant charge of government misconduct [Eugene Volokh] Possible life sentence for pot brownies shows “utterly irrational consequences of...
View ArticleNick Gillespie interviews Lenore Skenazy
For Reason TV. On a pending New Jersey case: “I think it’s the first case of letting a kid wait in a car that’s going to any state supreme court.” Lenore’s now-classic appearance at Cato, “Stop...
View ArticleWashington Post begins Shaken Baby Syndrome series
Washington Post today launches an investigative series on dubious Shaken Baby Syndrome convictions. “In Illinois, a federal judge who recently freed a mother of two after nearly a decade in prison...
View ArticleCrime and punishment roundup
“Felony murder: why a teenager who didn’t kill anyone faces 55 years in jail” [Ed Pilkington, Guardian] Crime largely missing from urbanist discussion but might actually be more important than...
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