Here's a coincidence. I mentioned Reno's unspeakable injustice inflicted on Mr Snowden yesterday, and today there is more news about his case. WSJ:
Out of Jail
It took 12 long and lonely years for Grant Snowden to step into the Florida sun. The once decorated police officer turned child-molesting satanist in the eyes of an obsessed and out-of-control prosecutorial militia was finally set free by Judge William C. Turnoff. He could have been sent back to jail pending further court proceedings, but he walked out of the courtroom yesterday, donning a baggy suit brought by a relative.
Mr. Snowden's life began crumbling in the early 1980s when he was accused of molesting a three-year-old boy cared for by his wife, who ran a baby-sitting service. By the time he came to trial, that charge had been dropped, but it was replaced by others equally implausible but nevertheless pursued with unstinting vigor by the office of Janet Reno, then state attorney general in Dade County.
Relying typically on pseudo-witnesses, influenced by hysterical moms and benefiting from the stupefying lack of rationality that would see puzzled four-year-olds as vessels of wisdom and truth, the prosecutors managed to stick Mr. Snowden into jail for not one, not even two, but five life terms. But of course Mr. Snowden, now 51 years old, was just one of the many stunned adults who ended up in courtrooms, fighting for their sanity. Readers of this paper will be familiar with Dorothy Rabinowitz's accounts of judicial abuse of especially Kelly Michaels, Pastor Robert Roberson and the Amirault family; we could fill a special issue with the ghastly biographies of others still languishing in jail.
In Mr. Snowden's case hope finally arrived this February when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his conviction, noting with a special degree of disbelief that his accusers were all toddlers (the oldest six years) and remembering supposed events that took place two years before that. The court ordered that he be given a speedy retrial or released. It will come as no surprise, of course, that the state's prosecutors did their absolute best to keep Mr. Snowden jailed until the new trial.
Judge Turnoff's decision to release Mr. Snowden on a $50,000 bond has thwarted this. And most of those familiar with the case believe there is little chance that the ex-cop will see the inside of a jail again. The judge also rejected a request by the prosecutor to muzzle Mr. Snowden and keep him from speaking with the press--reminding the state that there is something called the First Amendment.
We hope Mr. Snowden will speak out loudly and clearly about his wasted 12 years--and send his clippings to Ms. Reno in Washington. |
