Prosecutorial Misconduct: Convicting the Innocent
Professor James R. Elkins College of Law
West Virginia University|Fall|2016|

Bernie Baran

Documentary

"Freeing Bernie Baran" (2010) [1hr. 37 mins.] [available on Amazon Instant Video]

"[T]his documentary chronicles the story of Bernard Baran, a Pittsfield, Massachusetts native who was wrongfully convicted of child molestation during the day care sex abuse hysteria of the late eighties and early nineties. The film offers a glimpse into wrongful conviction, how it is carried out from start to finish, and the effect it has on the innocent and their families." ~New England Innocence Project

Freeing Bernie Baran
[2:24 mins.] ["Freeing Bernie Baran" documentary film trailer :: 2010]

Post-Screening Q & A
[18:23 mins.]

Video

Bernard Baran
[47:05 mins.] [a day care abuse case; non-DNA case in which the defendant was incarcarated for 22 years (from the age of 19); defense won the right to a new trial, and the state after an appeal that it lost, decided not to retry the case] [contributing causes for the wrongful conviction: prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel; homophobia and child day care center child abuse hysteria]

State Court Opinions

Commonweath vs. Bernard F. Baran, Jr.
21 Mass. App. Ct. 989 (1986)

Commonwealth vs. Bernard F. Baran, Jr.
74 Mass. App. Ct. 256 (2009)

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