THE INNOCENCE CASE OF FRANK FUSTER
This case, known in the popular press as the Country Walk case, was among
the most reported events in Florida during the decade of the 1980’s. Francisco
Fuster-Escalona, the petitioner herein, was vilified in the print and broadcast media as
every detail of the proceedings leading up to his trial was reported statewide.
The trial of his case, however, presents a genuine anachronism. It came at
the same time as many of the other "celebrated" sex abuse investigations
involving day care providers and allegations of ritual abuse. The nation was in a fervor,
believing that children were at risk everywhere, at every moment. A cottage industry of
"experts" arose to lend the veneer of professionalism to opinions, based on no
empirical data, that children do not lie and that one can discern when a child is making a
false report because the child’s demeanor, conduct and language choice fit within a
pattern found generally in sexually abused children.
Research, however, conducted in the decade since Mr. Fuster’s trial,
has revealed conclusively that children are highly susceptible to suggestion and that they
incorporate suggestion into their memories in such a way that the child is unable to
detect the source of his or her memory (i.e., whether the event happened or whether the
child imagined it happened.)
In Mr. Fuster’s case, the child complainants were subjected to
suggestive questioning by the state that, as research now proves, alters a child’s
memory in profound ways, rendering the child’s original memory of the actual events
irretrievable.
Almost every piece of evidence submitted for jury consideration in Mr.
Fuster’s case, including the opinions of the state’s expert witnesses, was so
highly unreliable as to have been constitutionally deficient. The statement of facts below
will give the Court an overview of the many constitutional violations that resulted in Mr.
Fuster’s conviction. Each separate Argument of Law will then provide a more detailed
analysis of the facts and law supporting each of Mr. Fuster’s claims.
Amy Gershenfeld Donnella
Attorney of law.
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