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The Indictment: The Mcmartin Trial

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The McMartin Preschool Abuse Trial, has been the longest and most expensive criminal trial in American history; it lasted more than 5 years and it cost the Us more than 15 million dollars.(Linder) The McMartin case was born when a child, who attended a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California. The preschool was owned by the Mc Martin family. The child reported being raped, it hit the breaking news in no time. The family was quickly arrested and what continued after would change their lives forever. After the arrest hundreds of and hundreds of children started to testify that they as well had been abused. The childrens abuse stories were gruesome and descriptive. Since the case gained popularity in no time it quickly began to unfold as a mass hysteria among the …show more content…

The people handling the McMartin case handled the evidence brought to them a little different than usual. Even though the prosecutors were hit with harsh evidence from the beginning they pushed it to the side. For example, in the movie “The Indictment: McMartin Trials” , a movie based on the real life events of the McMartin case, the kid who first stated being raped and his mother later changed their statement. The mother mentioned to one of the officers that her boyfriend had been the one who sexually abused the toddler. Also, the mother suffered from alcoholism and serial mental illnesses. This caused tention between the prosecutors but they quickly found a solution. The police held back this immense evidence because of the credibility and the advancement of the trial. They didn’t wanna take a change by changing the statement, it gave no case to the police and they didn’t wanna take a chance on it. Instead they decided to put that evidence to the side and continue prosecuting the McMartin family. The lack of professionalism and selfishness of the court fed the case more unethical

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