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. I
have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses
several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of
the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this
powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and
myself get more out of the site. 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/ 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 I look forward to hearing from readers at: