![\"120403Clement1\"](\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/120403Clement1.jpg\")
April 4, 2012<\/p>\nApril 4, 2012<\/p>\n
\u201cAn appeals court Thursday overturned the conviction of six people accused of participating in a pedophilia ring in northern France five years ago, unraveling one of the most mismanaged cases in French judicial history and leaving the nation asking how the court system could have gone so awry.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2018I apologize to the acquitted and their families,\u2019 Justice Minister Pascal Clement said at a news conference after the verdict was announced in Paris.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ordered a triple investigation of the police, judiciary and social services involved in the case…. \u2018I want the French people to know that I will get to the bottom of this,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cParis\u2019s chief prosecutor, Yves Bot, had personally asked the appeal court to acquit the six, calling the case a \u2018true catastrophe\u2019 and demanding an investigation into who was responsible for such a gross miscarriage of justice. \u2018We must do what is necessary to make sure this doesn’t happen again,\u2019 Bot said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut others were heartened by the appeal, saying that it showed that the courts were capable of self-criticism and self-correction.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2018That’s indispensable in a democracy,\u2019 said Dominique Wolton, a sociologist at France’s National Council for Scientific Research.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe case began in 2000 in the town of Outreau after a number of children told a teacher that they had been abused.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was marred by deep doubts from the beginning, said Yves Jannier, France’s attorney general.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe noted that the investigative report by the police in July 2002 found \u2018more doubts than certainties\u2019 in the accusations, but said, \u2018No one had enough critical sense to stop the machine.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 From the International Herald Tribune, Dec. 2, 2005<\/em><\/p>\n \n Thanks to lawyer-neighbor Lou Lesesne for steering me to this account of the Outreau Affair. Soon after, president Jacques Chirac wrote letters to 13 acquitted defendants and to the widow of a defendant who committed suicide in prison awaiting trial: \u201cJustice is the soul of the republic. We have the imperative duty to draw all the lessons from the immense sufferings endured by all the accused whose innocence has now been established.\u201d<\/p>\n How to explain the French state\u2019s humane response to its costly misdeeds, while our own prosecutors, attorneys general, governors, et al., keep silent?<\/p>\n Why aren\u2019t they too \u201ccapable of self-criticism and self-correction\u201d?<\/p>\n Why don\u2019t they too recognize \u201cthe immense sufferings endured by all the accused\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April 4, 2012 \u201cAn appeals court Thursday overturned the conviction of six people accused of participating in a pedophilia ring in northern France five years ago, unraveling one of the most mismanaged cases in French judicial history and leaving the nation asking how the court system could have gone so awry. \u201c \u2018I apologize to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAlthough the case differs in numerous significant ways from such U.S. ritual-abuse prosecutions as Little Rascals and McMartin, I was most struck by the readiness of French officials to acknowledge and apologize for a justice system gone crazy.<\/p>\n