Gerald Amirault's Christmas - An innocent man spends his 16th holiday in a Mass. prison ~ WSJ.

The Wall Street Journal. | December 24, 2001 | The Wall Street Journal. Editorial Board

[Elle Bee]

Gerald Amirault's Christmas

This is the 16th Christmas Gerald Amirault will have spent behind bars, separated from his family. The fact should come as a jolt to the great number of Americans in Massachusetts and the rest of the country who welcomed the decision of the Massachusetts Governor's Advisory Board earlier this year calling for the commutation of his sentence.

Those innocents who imagined that all this meant Gerald Amirault would soon see freedom doubtless underestimated the political fears and calculations that must stir the heart of a Governor in such a case -- though virtually every newspaper in the state, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald included, concurred with the board and called for Mr. Amirault's release. Still, no word comes from Governor Jane Swift, and Gerald remains imprisoned.

The board handed down its ruling nearly six months ago. The unanimous decision came from a panel widely considered the toughest parole board in the nation -- one comprised of ex-prosecutors and others with law enforcement backgrounds. More than one Massachusetts judge has said it is virtually impossible to get this board to approve a parole request on first application.

Unswift justice

It was from this board, nonetheless, that the citizens of Massachusetts received a hard-eyed decision for justice in this case -- the first ever from an official state body. We are speaking of a span of time that goes back to the mid-1980s, when prosecutors first mounted their spectacular case of child abuse against Violet Amirault, owner of the Fells Acres Day School in Malden, her son Gerald and daughter Cheryl -- successful prosecutions that ended up sweeping the entire family off to prison.

The District Attorney who convicted the Amiraults on the basis of fantastic accusatory testimony wrung from preschoolers has since gone on to greater things. Former D.A. Scott Harshbarger, who has never ceased to claim that the convictions were just, has now brought his skills to the leadership of Common Cause, the famed good government advocacy group. Neither Mr. Harshbarger nor his prosecutorial successors -- every one determined to do his all to preserve the Amiraults' convictions -- had anything to fear from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which upheld the prosecutors in every appeal while ignoring evidence of the most blatant kind pointing to a miscarriage of justice. The stain attaching to Massachusetts' highest court as a result of its treatment of the Amiraults will not easily erase.

It was precisely this history that rendered the decision of the Governor's parole board so dramatic when it came last July. The decision for commutation on the grounds of "fundamental fairness" included a statement, endorsed by a majority of the board, which cited the "real and substantial doubt" about the justice of the conviction that had sent the Amiraults to prison and the "extraordinary, if not bizarre allegations" that had been mounted against them.

That the majority was moved to issue these statements was in itself remarkable, considering that the board is specifically forbidden to consider issues of guilt or innocence in its decisions. They had been obedient to those guidelines, the majority noted, but still they had been impelled to speak out on the merits of this prosecution. That prosecution turned the lives of three Massachusetts citizens to ashes and utterly ruined that of Violet Amirault, who spent eight years in prison along with her daughter. Mrs. Amirault died in 1997. Gerald Amirault has now been in prison twice as long as his mother and sister were, for crimes none of them committed.

Some months back Governor Swift signed legislation absolving the accused in the infamous witchcraft trials of Massachusetts. No controversy there. Many in her state and outside it will be watching to see when she may turn her attention to the living victim of another Massachusetts prosecution driven by hysteria and wild accusations. It is time, in short, for the Governor to step up to her task and free Gerald Amirault.

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[Elle Bee]

Click on the porcine Swimmer:

YTedK -Ted Kennedy the truth about Chappaquiddick, and more...

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Click Logo to go to:

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[TroutStalker]

Harshberger, like Janet Reno, built his political career on the destruction of innocent people. It looks like Swift is continuing the tradition in Massachusetts.

[Elle Bee]

who was Reno's whiping boy ... Gary Snowden??

The WSJ. did a great job on / drove that story as well

Likely why they told her they were molesting children before she decided to broil them at Waco

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[TroutStalker]

It is Snowden, maybe Grant, I don't recall right now. Dorothy Rabinowitz has certainly done everything to see that the facts in these cases are brought to light, but the mainstream press has pretended they don't exist anymore. To them the stories were only interesting when the charges were sensational, and who cares about justice in the long run.

It's disappointing that Swift has turned her back on the Amiraults.

[Tokhtamish]

Dorothy Rabinowitz was absolutely outstanding for the fine work she did helping to stop the Wentachee witch hunt.

[Elle Bee]

I quite agree ..... and I believe she had done quite a bit on this one in the Peoples Republic of MA.

She brought tears to my eyes .....and I'm pretty much a wizened gizzer

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[Marianne]

the decision of the Massachusetts Governor's Advisory Board earlier this year calling for the commutation of his sentence.
Still, no word comes from Governor Jane Swift, and Gerald remains imprisoned.
Sixteen years already spent in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Tragic! Thanks for posting.

[Gabz]

It's Massachusetts, does anyone think this to be unusual????

A state that has no problem with drunk driving murders, but wants to put smokers of cigarettes in jail, should not be expected to pay any attention to the fundamentals of justice.

[Elle Bee]

A state that has no problem with drunk driving murders, but wants to put smokers of cigarettes in jail, should not be expected to pay any attention to the fundamentals of justice.

That's one of the reasons that I posted the link to The Swimmer

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[Elle Bee]

I think you're right it is Grant

It's disappointing that Swift has turned her back on the Amiraults.

the entire hypocritical Peoples Republic of MA

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[backhoe]

who was Reno's whiping boy ... Gary Snowden?? The WSJ. did a great job on / drove that story as well

It was Grant.... let's see what links I have here:

Grant Snowden Case

Yesterday on Mike's Show - Janet Reno's ...

frontline: the child terror

Rats! The first link seems to be dead..... but a web search on the names, or "child molestation cases" will give you more than you want to know about this wave of persecution "for the children...."

[Elle Bee]

thanks ..... and Merry Christmas

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[Elle Bee]

Meanwhile, a federal court is taking a new look at one of Ms. Reno's proudest accomplishments back in Florida. Dorothy Rabinowitz reported yesterday that a three judge panel has accepted jurisdiction of a former policeman, Grant Snowden, who was convicted of child abuse in 1996 on the basis of the kind of hysterical evidence then fashionable, but now discredited. Indeed, when the first jury acquitted Mr. Snowden, Ms. Reno set out to get him with a whole new set of charges. In fact she came to the White House's attention and her present high office as a champion of children. That was the story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday by Dorothy Rabinowitz, who has been chasing these stories about Snowden.

What was the quote fom Michael Reagan's famous father?....... 'some will just keep feeding the alligator hoping they will be the last one it eats'

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[backhoe]

Dorothy Rabinowitz is a real hero- she pursued this case when hardly anyone cared, and hammered on it until they did care.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[Elle Bee]

the Journal.'s editorial page tends / prefers to drive stories rather than engage in the Monday morning quaterbacking proffered by most of the press corps

and they are effective and right

..... its likely that right part which keeps them and their writers from so many well deserved awards

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[Elle Bee]

Dorothy Rabinowitz is a real hero- she pursued this case when hardly anyone cared, and hammered on it until they did care.

Snowden & Amirault ....amongst others

Wonderful things have happened under Bartley

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[Elle Bee]

The District Attorney who convicted the Amiraults on the basis of fantastic accusatory testimony wrung from preschoolers has since gone on to greater things. Former D.A. Scott Harshbarger, who has never ceased to claim that the convictions were just, has now brought his skills to the leadership of Common Cause, the famed good government advocacy group. Neither Mr. Harshbarger nor his prosecutorial successors -- every one determined to do his all to preserve the Amiraults' convictions -- had anything to fear from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, which upheld the prosecutors in every appeal while ignoring evidence of the most blatant kind pointing to a miscarriage of justice. The stain attaching to Massachusetts' highest court as a result of its treatment of the Amiraults will not easily erase.

we should take names and remember them

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