No one likes child abusers. Before the Supreme Court decided to codify in our Constitution the European notion that child molesters should suffer repeated rape in prison rather than be put to death, Louisiana made child molestation a death penalty offense.
However, as any conservative knows, “for the children” is a codeword for “this is going to hurt.” Anyone who watched daycare workers and parents put through Hell because overzealous prosecutors, usually without children, wanted some plum prosecutions and found a convenient target, knows the story. (I’m looking at you, Janet Reno. But only reflected in a well-buffed shield.) The cases follow a familiar pattern: A child is locked in a room with intimidating authority figures — police, teachers, or some combination — and told to simply tell them where daddy/mommy/the teacher/the daycare provider touched them. If the child denies it, well, she must be scared of punishment, right? Just keep asking. Lean in a little closer. When she asks to leave, well, she must still be scared she’ll get in trouble. Make clear she can’t leave just yet, but as soon as she tells you where she was touched/where the animal sacrifice was held (that’s not a joke), someone will get her something to drink and everything will be ok. The police/teachers are just here to help. Just talk. Then you can go.
Once she talks — even if she recants — the target is basically looking at a certain conviction, because child abuse is so terrible, juries rush to verdict, and defense attorneys know this. A parent’s child becomes a gateway to ripping away his civil rights and the presumption of innocence. Every attorney charged with defending an accused child molester knows he’d have a better chance defending a charge of genocide. I’ve been there, and God knows I’m not the only one.
Fortunately, we have nine robed masters who look all primed to set a muddy balancing test for prosecutors to follow in the future. The Washington Post tells us that the Supreme Court is going to pretend to care about an accused child molester’s rights. Here are sketches of the facts — facts that are extremely common in these cases.