Harvey Silverglate Opinion Piece in Boston Globe Argues the Justice System Failed his Deceased Client

Harvey Silverglate, of counsel to ZDB, published an opinion article in the Boston Globe on October 9, 2014, regarding the heartbreaking case of his client Bernard Baran. Baran, an openly gay man, was convicted of child rape in 1985. Jurors were never shown unedited videotapes of interviews with the children in which they initially denied that Baran had done anything wrong, before being subjected to suggestive and discredited interview techniques. Baran was freed after the tapes surfaced, having served 22 years in prison, but passed away on September 1 this year. Mr. Silverglate argues that the Commonwealth must now conduct a searching and public investigation into the question of whether the prosecutors at trial, one of whom is now a sitting judge, intentionally withheld the tapes from the defense. Mr. Silverglate’s piece can be read here.