Category Archives: Editorials/Opinion

Now, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has descended into the fray. She wants an ‘immediate investigation’ of not only this, but similar cases that calls into question the quality of justice delivery. Read http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9189884/Trayvon-Martin-killing-UN-human-rights-chief-calls-for-investigation.html. Some would charge that this is presumptuous, since the matter is still under investigation. The question in retort is, for how long should this investigation drag?

Although some media networks have attempted to unduly hype, and in some cases ‘tweak’ the facts -an MSNBC reporter was recently relieved of his job for doing just that – the point remains that the due process has been sluggish. It appears the Special Prosecutor will be undermining convoking a grand jury and proceed to make her report/opinion public soon, after reviewing all of the facts. She will then decide one way or the other, whether to cause Zimmerman’s arrest and prosecution and/or instruct on what steps to take to resolve this tragic incident.

The morale of this case should not be lost. It’s about scrupulous adherence to the law. For me, it’s about justice for all concerned – both to Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman- so that at the end, everybody would be rest assured that justice was done. At the moment, leaving the case in abeyance has tended to throw in extraneous and sometimes irrelevant considerations. Experience shows that, these usually are the warning signals and precursor to wrongful conviction cases, when the facts are ‘everywhere’. We all await the decision of the Special Prosecutor.

Sue Luttner is a San Francisco Bay area technical writer and journalist who found herself following the polarized professional debate that’s surrounded shaken baby syndrome (SBS) for the past two decades. After years of research, she has concluded that well-intentioned child-abuse professionals working with an overly simple model of SBS are, in some cases, convicting innocent people and tearing apart innocent families.

Sue maintains a blog on the subject, onsbs.com, and here is a link:

http://onsbs.com

This is a picture of Baby Allysa with her parents.  Allysa has since died of a genetic condition, spinal muscular atrophy, that is fatal in infants.  Tragically, her death came after the death of her parents who were under investigation for child abuse because of the broken bones in Alyssa’s legs.  Allysa had been taken from her parents at 3 months and given to a foster mother.  Facing imminent arrest, Allysa’s father, increasingly despondent and distraught, shot his sleeping wife in the head, and then killed himself.  It was shortly after this that Alyssa’s genetic condition, which explains the broken bones, was finally diagnosed.

Dr. John Plunkett recently posted an article on this case on the SBS Listserv, with this comment:

“Physicians, not social workers, initiate and propagate the incorrect diagnoses.”

A copy of the article from the Dnever Post is here:

Olinger D. Spinal muscular atrophy. Denver Post, 2012-04-01

This is a heart breaker, but aren’t they all.  I have to agree with Dr. Plunkett’s view. The medical community is going to have to take the elevator down from their ivory towers, deflate their bloated egos, and admit there is much they don’t know, and that they are not always right.  I can’t blame the pediatric medical community for wanting to “protect the babies”, but they have to get it right, and not be locked-in to predispositions about abuse diagnoses.

Phil Locke

The Trayvon Martin case has been getting LOTS of media coverage.  Of course – this is a racially charged situation.  But I would like to echo Martin Yant’s previous post on the danger of a “rush to judgement”.  You cannot – I repeat, CANNOT – try these cases in the media.  There is no way “Joe citizen” can possibly be cognizant of all the details, and facts, and intricacies of a case like this.  And there is great probability that neither the prosecution nor the defense can either.

With all the media hype, people make a quick determination based upon their own set of prejudices, and then form an emotional attachement to that determination.  Then “confirmation bias” kicks in big time.

And at this point in time, the investigation hasn’t even been completed.

Another case in point is the Casey Anthony case.  Now …. did Caylie Anthony die? Yes.  Was her body found in a garbage bag?  Yes.  Did her mother have any kind of involvement in her death and the coverup?  Probably.  But was it premeditated, 1st degree, capital murder?  The jury said “no”.  And the jury did the right thing.  The prosecution did not prove it’s case.  In their rush to “make big headlines” and “build careers” they got greedy.  A lesser charge would have returned a “guilty” verdict in a minute.

Whether you be prosecution or defense, this is supposed to be about facts, and truth, and logic, and JUSTICE.