“A complete disgrace.” That’s how Melinda Thompson, Aisling Brady McCarthy’s lawyer, correctly characterized the prosecution’s handling of the case against her client (“Nanny’s murder case dropped”). Indeed, it is difficult to read the Globe’s account of the history of this case without a sense of anger at the overzealous prosecution of this nanny, who was locked away for more than two years for a crime that it now appears was not committed by anyone.
Unfortunately, this sorry affair is not unique in the annals of Massachusetts criminal jurisprudence. Before the McCarthy case there was the rush to judgment in the prosecution, and later withdrawal, of a murder charge against Geoffrey Wilson for causing the death of his son. It was also not so many years ago that the Amirault family was victimized by overzealous prosecutors who were only too willing to accept the frenzied claims of self-proclaimed experts to charge that unfortunate family with committing the most bizarre and fantastic acts of abuse of children.
One hopes that our prosecutors will do at least a little better in the future.
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