by TChris

Last week, TalkLeft wrote about Bernard Baran, a gay man who was swept up in the nationwide hysteria generated by false accusations of child molestation in daycare centers during the 1980's. The good news for Baran in his bid for a new trial is that he's represented by an excellent team of lawyers.

Led by attorneys John G. Swomley and Harvey A. Silverglate, with the assistance of Pamela Nicholson, Baran’s lawyers have discovered more evidence of potentially unreliable testimony by Baran’s accusers, alleged prosecutorial misconduct, and an ineptly presented defense — all of which speak to Baran’s innocence.

You can read about the compelling new evidence of Baran's innocence here.

Speaking of Silverglate, you may enjoy reading his comparison between John Ashcroft's version of justice and the show trials (i.e., coerced guilty pleas) favored in the former Soviet Union.

See the emerging picture? It’s an endless series of faux prosecutions in which defendants are threatened to "cooperate" and plead guilty, or face indefinite incommunicado imprisonment, with all the physical and psychological terrors that accompany finding oneself in a bottomless legal pit. ... None of the "evidence" ever gets to be heard and evaluated by a jury of honest Americans, but the march of prosecutions and guilty pleas rolls onward, and the Bush administration’s war on terror is palmed off on the public as a huge success.