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U.S. Man vs The Pope

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As if you haven't heard enough about sexual abuse allegations against the Vatican, a Wisconsin man is filing a lawsuit against the Pope and the Vatican. The plaintiff is going by the name of John Doe 16 and his lawsuit is aiming to place blame on higher level individuals of the Roman Catholic Church. JD16's claim is that the Vatican controls fundraising efforts, doctrine in general, and leadership, all the way down to the lowest levels of the church.

JD16's lawsuit is being filed on behalf of an Illinois man who claims he was abused in the 1960's at the Catholic parish he attended. The unique part about this lawsuit is that the suit is intended to prove that the Vatican is a "business" and global empire. The lawsuit also claims that the Catholic Church practices in "commercial activity" in Wisconsin as well as across the United States by holding "unqualified power" over each diocese. 

The Vatican's U.S. based lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, says that the lawsuit is a "publicity stunt with no merit" and that the theories brought up in the suit were introduced to the Vatican some twenty years ago, therefore could not be held liable. There are certain issues that other defense lawyers say will hinder and progress with this lawsuit. One issue is that the lawsuit would claim that the Vatican actually has "a employment relationship" with its priests. A big issue facing this suit would be overcoming the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which includes rules in which limits U.S. legal action against sovereign nations and this includes the Vatican.

Cases such as this are important in the advancement of psychological issues in regards to witness memory, deception, wrongful convictions, and defamation of character. The Catholic Church has had to deal with allegations of sexual abuse for decades. One concern I have with witnesses coming forward twenty to thirty years later is the idea that as a young child, they remember (memory and cognition) being abused by a certain priest over X amount of time. I would like to think that the majority of these individuals are in fact being honest in their allegations because otherwise it opens up all sorts of room for error in law. Priests blamed for these crimes (whom might be 100% innocent) are dragged through the muddy media reports, and community "gossip". Not only does this affect their job as a holy person, but it affects their own psychological well being. If these cases are in fact deceptive and falsified, it puts more pressure on the legal system, the Vatican, and local dioceses to not "screw things up" and place innocent people (and entities) behind bars (and/or labeled a "black sheep" in their community). 


The McVeigh Tapes

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I was watching tv over Easter break and saw this on a commercial.  It is a documentary about the Oklahoma City Bombings.  It will air Monday, April 19th at 9pm. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36135258%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20/

After our class discussion on false confession during Tuesday's class I have been noticing the integration techniques we discussed is class. One news report on the E channel stood out above the rest. Kevin Fox's 3 year old girl was said to be missing on the morning of June 6th 2004. Kevin's wife Melissa was in Chicago for the weekend therefore he was home by himself with Tyler and the later missing daughter Riley. Police investigated the crime scene however, when police continued the investigation they ignored a lot of the evidence indicated there was an intruder. Instead investigators went after father Kevin Fox. The interrogation of Kevin Fox lasted 14 ½ hours. Over this time Kevin had asked to speech to his brother and a lawyer. Police told him that he did not need to speech to anyone and just needed to confess that he killed and sexually assaulted his daughter Riley. Police used tactics such as telling Kevin that if he didn't confess then there were some inmates in jail that would make him pay for what he did. They even went as far as to lie by stating that Melissa was going to divorce him if he did not cooperate with them. The interesting this about this statement is that Melissa stayed by Kevin's side throughout the entire investigation and police never said she would divorce him if he didn't tell the truth, they said she would divorce him if he did "cooperate" with them.  Eventually after this horrible interrogation Kevin admitted to killing his daughter using the information authorities gave him during his interrelation to make up his story.

 

After the confession investigator told the FBI to stop DNA testing. Kevin spent 8 months in jail before he would be cleared through the DNA testing that the FBI stopped.  Interestingly enough this is also the same procedure that was used during the interrogation of JonBenet Ramsey. Both fathers in this cases we told the killing of their daughter was an accident and they were trying to cover it up, and both fathers were exonerated by DNA evidence that in both cases were originally never carried out.

 

 

Below are a couple of links to some highlights of the ABC broadcast of the situation. The whole hour version of the episode in the links below because they were presented in parts and I was unable to find all the video clips. However, if you are interested there is a lot of information about the case on the ABC website if you search for either Kevin Fox or Riley Fox.

 

Introduction to the Case and the 911 phone call

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6210664

 

News article:Kevin Fox and his statements on the integration process.

http://www.truthinjustice.org/kevin-fox.htm

 

Video Clip about DNA exoneration of Kevin Fox

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6210784

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