Accused: Are You Safe?

Accused: A Documentary Film. Why It's Needed

Documentary Website

About:
In 1692 the testimony of six girls led to the convictions and executions of 19 men and women for the practice of witchcraft. All but one of the "Circle Girls" later recanted their testimony, but much too late to save the innocent. Events like the Salem Witch Trials  and brutal treatment by the British Empire were fresh in the minds of our founding fathers when the basis of our legal framework and government were put onto paper. The sentiments of the time led to a declaration of independence  and the ratification of our Constitution and have become more than ideas of justice and freedom for all Americans. They are the very essence of what America is—a precious and delicate belief in what a government should be, ideas that we hold dear and sacred to this day.

Our system of law was designed to prevent future failures like those of Salem, Massachusetts. The basic premise of presumption of innocence undertones our bill of rights.Our belief that we are all innocent until proven guilty is the core of our faith and security in our legal system. We live out our lives with the comfort and assurance that if we remain civil and abide by the laws of the land that we have nothing to fear: our innocence protects us from an overzealous government and its people.

But as history shows, these perfect ideas of law can entirely break down in practice, as senator Joseph McCarthy  demonstrated in the 1950’s. We look back to McCarthyism  as a national faux pas, a breach of our tenants of law and a test of our system of government—and its people—to right itself over time. Surely again, we would never let such a thing happen.

Or would we?

Accused is a documentary film which will show how emotions and politics fuel  hysteria that lead to gross abuses of our legal system that continue to destroy the lives of thousands of innocent American citizens. These failures of our legal system aren’t just moments of history we study to prevent future breakdowns—hundreds of actually and factually innocent people are currently imprisoned for a crime they did not commit, and thousands more are being wrung through a system that desperately needs to be re-examined.

Accused will examine: the problems of hysteria surrounding accusations of child molestation and rape and how these types of accusations have become an all-to-easy method of revenge and vindictiveness; growing abuse and criticism of sexual offender registries; problems with the politicization of key positions within our legal system; privatization and profiteering on the convicted; the increasing use of our legal system as a corporate weapon to eliminate fair competition; and the overall imbalance of equal-access to the law. Each of these problems are symptomatic of a larger problem within our legal framework. Untreated, these problems continue to eat away at all of our civil liberties.

Our idea of law is perfect. Our practice of law, however, is subject to the imperfections of human nature. It is easy to accept a few miscalculations of the system, until that miscalculation is you and your entire way of life has been completely stripped away. And our faith in the presumption of innocence blinds us to how easy it is to find yourself living inside a nightmare never imagined possible.

From the director:
I had never intended to make this documentary. Like most Americans, I was blissfully ignorant to a vast problem within our national legal landscape. But then I saw first hand the financial and social destruction that happens when false accusations are leveled against someone.

A close friend of mine was falsely accused of raping children, was arrested and is currently awaiting trial. When I began researching how someone defends themselves against such vile accusations (and they are vile, I know my friend to be innocent) I opened a door to a world I thought couldn't possibly exist in our country. It was a door that I could not close. What I saw shattered my belief and faith in a fair and impartial legal system.

And it made my heart sink when I knew my friend would be forced through a broken system, knowing that regardless of the outcome of his trial that he wouldn't come out of it unharmed.

Accused isn't a documentary about my friend. It isn't just about people falsely accused of child rape and molestation. It is about a national hysteria towards sex offenders and a resulting political, judicial and law enforcement environment that more closely resembles  Russian Roulette than a rational carriage of justice. And no one has immunity: the revolver is pointed at each of us. You could be next.

Over the past couple decades the number of accusations of child sexual assault has skyrocketed: 500,000 accusations a year. However the number of substantiated claims has largely remained the same at 300,000 cases. This means that 200,000 Americans a year are wrung through our legal system despite their innocence. The average cost of receiving a proper and adequate defense against false accusations is an astounding $50,000 and the need for specialization in these types of cases makes the reliance upon public defenders almost a guaranteed guilty verdict. Once the innocent are falsely convicted, fighting on appeals can run into half a million dollars in legal fees.

But we don't stop there. Our societal zeal for persecuting sexual “crimes” and lauding the Sexual Offenders Registry as a success story surpassed absurdity moments after its introduction. Landing on the sexual offenders registry need not require a violent crime. It need not even require sex or sexual conduct of any kind. In several instances, you can become a sexual offender and added to the registry for committing a “crime” against yourself, so you are both the victim and the perpetrator.

Accused makes a comparison to the Salem Witch Trials. The reaction to this is that the Witch Trials were worse than anything happening today, that we no longer drown people who do not confess (yes, we do, just not with water), we don't accept heresy in our courts (oh but we do), we don't convict people without evidence (are you sure about that?). After all, most people argue, 19 people were executed as a result of the “legal dark ages” of Salem Massachusetts.

Accused will show how we have more than surpassed the absurdity of the Salem Witch Trials and the 19 innocent people who lost their lives. The death toll just from people who have been murdered (Videos), many targeted at random for being on the sexual offender registry has surpassed 55 people. Accused will show the atrocities that happen behind a veil of public safety and reveal the festering cancer which is eating our legal system, our due process and our civil liberties alive.

-Austen Hoogen, Producer/Director