Couple exonerated in 25 year old "Satanic Panic" conviction

Another sad story in the history of moral panics

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Fran and Dan Keller were each sentenced to 48 years in prison for the alleged sexual assault of a 3-year-old girl who was an occasional drop-in at their home daycare center on the rural outskirts of Austin. The child initially accused Dan of spanking her “like daddy” used to, but under intense and repeated questioning by her mother and a therapist, the story morphed to include claims of rape and orgies involving children. From there, the number of children alleging abuse increased and the accusations grew even more lurid and confounding: The Kellers had sacrificed babies; they held ceremonies in a local graveyard; they put blood in the children’s Kool-Aid; Fran cut off the arm of a gorilla in a local park; they flew the children to Mexico to be sexually assaulted by military officials.

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all made up/implanted memories created by a local hysteria over a made up threat (occult Satanism)

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The Austin Police Department refused to release its investigative report on the case, forcing the Chronicle to take the agency to court. We ultimately won the right to full, unredacted access.

After reading the report, it was not hard to understand why the department had fought to keep it secret. It was an ALL-CAPS, run-on-sentence fever dream full of breathless accusations and absent any actual investigation that could prove or disprove the claims. On multiple occasions, the lead investigator took the girl who accused the Kellers to lunch at McDonald’s before setting out for drives in the neighborhood where she would point out locations: Yes, she had been abused there; yes, she recognized the cemetery where the Kellers had killed and buried babies; yes, many of the residents of the quiet neighborhood were in on the hi-jinx. Not once did investigators question the child’s statements.

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credibility is a very fine line in prosecutions involving children. their brains are fully malleable and false memories can easily be implanted, even if not done on purpose. children have a natural inclination to go along with the implications adults are presenting (think of it as being "yes men") and while most memory is bullshite, their memories are often COMPLETE bullshite.

young children also have an undeveloped moral center and have no real understanding of the impact of embellishment. this creates a scenario where they want to help the adults, tell a slew of lies, and once they tell the false story has been told/confirmed a few times, it's a "real" memory for them.

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Mouw’s medical opinion had fundamentally changed, offering the Kellers an avenue to challenge their conviction. During a hearing in the summer of 2013, he unequivocally stated that there was no doubt that the child’s genitalia was normal and that he’d gotten it wrong when he examined her in 1991. He said that he tried to reach out to the Austin Police Department after he realized his error but was rebuffed by the detective, who was “convinced they were guilty.”

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same paradigm applies to adults. they want to believe children, so when they hear these terrible stories that reinforce some overriding belief system (in this case, that Satanic cults were running wild), they will ignore and oppose information that contradicts their newfound beliefs (confirmation bias in full force).

there is a famous case out of Kansas, i believe, where a childcare center face similar accusations. the children all created this mythology of rape, torture, and all sorts of nasty thing....in a hidden basement located in the facility. investigators believed them and the operators, iirc, were found guilty there, too. later investigation proved that there isn't even a basement in the building. did the children or investigators accept reality? nope

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Without a formal exoneration, the Kellers struggled to rebuild their lives. They were still saddled with a conviction for sexual assault of a child, which made it nearly impossible to find work or a place to live.

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these people suffered for DECADES not only with serving time in jail AND not only with a felony conviction (which neuters any economic output), BUT ALSO with a sexual offender registration (which basically ends any real economic viability). imagine how terrible their life has been...for 20 years