The San Antonio Four: Texas; Extraordinary hearing set for April 22; Writer Maurice Chammah says it "will revive the ghosts of the satanic abuse trials and questions aboiut the testimony of child victims." The Marshall Project.

STORY:  "Who told the truth? A hearing in San Antonio will revive the ghosts of the satanic abuse trials and questions about the testimony of child victims," by Maurice Chammah, published by the Marshall Project on March 19, 2105. (Maurice Chammah is a staff writer based in Austin, Texas. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Texas Observer, and elsewhere. As a 2011-12 Fulbright Fellow in Cairo, he studied trends in Egyptian journalism. He plays the violin and has toured with the band Mother Falcon).

GIST: "The accusations all started with children. As a generation of journalists and lawyers discovered that the victims had been subjected to faulty interviewing techniques and flawed medical exams, most of these cases were debunked, even when the children did not formally recant their accusations. But the case of four women from San Antonio, who were convicted of molesting two young girls in the late 1990s, has endured, stretched out over more than two decades of trials and a years-long effort to free them. (I first began reporting on the case for The Texas Observer.).........On April 22, the case will enter its final act as the two alleged victims take the stand. Now in their late 20s, one still maintains the abuse took place, and the other says the two were coerced to make a false accusation. After each is cross-examined, a judge will decide the likely truth — essentially who is more credible — and make a recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The state’s highest criminal court will then decide whether the women should be declared innocent and entitled to compensation from the state, or, in an unlikely but plausible scenario, sent back to prison. The women whose fates depend on the hearing have been branded the “San Antonio Four” by their supporters. They fall into an increasingly visible category of prisoners who have been freed due to evidence of a wrongful conviction but have not been formally declared “innocent” by courts........ As their lawyers continued negotiating with prosecutors, a strange dichotomy emerged; Stephanie, the younger of the two victims, maintained that she’d never been molested. Her older sister — who is still officially a victim of sexual assault and therefore goes by the initials V.L. in public records, and who will not agree to interviews — never recanted. She still says it all happened. Stephanie’s recantation is compromised by the fact that she has fallen out with her father, Javier; he says she is recanting to get back at him. Her sister’s accusations are compromised by the fact that she and Javier are still close. On April 22, Stephanie and V.L. are expected to take the stand and hash it all out with lawyers for the four women and prosecutors. The judge will then make a recommendation to the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals about whether the women are entitled to a ruling of “actual innocence” and millions¹ of dollars in compensation........The testimony of Stephanie Limon and V.L. will present a microcosm of these issues of child testimony and memory, which haunt us a generation after the satanic abuse cases. There are two witnesses, alike in their unshakeable conviction, and one of them is wrong." https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/03/19/who-told-the-truth

PS: For latest coverage of the Mark Lundy retrial  go to:

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/mark-lundy-murder-retrial  

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
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The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
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Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;