Good news in Connecticut
This was one of those miscarriages of justice that are so egregious that you think it can't be happening in 21st century America. But today came good news that a nightmare may be ending for a 40-year-old Connecticut school teacher.
Julie Amero, a substitute teacher in Norwich, CT, faced 40 years in prison for being convicted of intentionally showing pornographic images to students on a classroom computer. Her life was close to being destroyed, and she isn't out of the woods yet because the judge in the case only ordered a new trial. She did not throw out the case, which would have been the proper response. And Amero and her family likely face crushing legal bills that really should be paid by the school district, the police, and the prosecutor's office that brought this case.
Basicly, Amero was a victim of spyware that took over a classroom computer and sent repeated pornographic pop-up images to the screen. She had no training in what to do if that happened. The school had stopped paying for updates of its web filtering software, and it failed to stop the porn onslaught. At her trial, the defense was blocked by the judge from introducing testimony from a computer forensic expert who examined the hard drive of the Windows computer Amero was using. And the prosecution never ran a spyware scan on the computer.
It's tempting to pass this off as another New England sexual hysteria case, like that infamous Fells Acres daycare prosecution in Massachusetts a few years back when children were induced into giving fanciful testimony about implausible sexual horrors. People went to prison in that case and did serious time before reason was restored, largely because of crusading columns by a Wall Street Journal writer. The real villains here are the Norwich police and prosecutors who seemed to lack any common sense and were willing to let an innocent life be destroyed to win a case that wasn't a case at all.
Judge Hillary Strackbein, in granting a new trial (which probably won't happen, meaning Amero will be in the clear) had the lack of grace to criticize the bloggers around the world who targeted this miscarriage of justice and focused critical attention on Connecticut justice. She accused them of trying to "improperly influence" the court. Too bad, lady.