bostondotcom OP t1_ix91hvj wrote on November 21, 2022 at 6:00 PM

From reporter Susannah Sudborough:

Gov. Charlie Baker has pardoned the two Amirault siblings who were convicted of child sex abuse in the 1980s in the long-questioned Fells Acre daycare case.

Gerald Amirault, 68, and his sister, Cheryl Amirault Lefave, 65, were accused of sexually assaulting over a dozen children at their Malden daycare in 1984, but have always maintained their innocence.

The case has long been controversial because of questionable techniques investigators used to elicit accusations from the children.

Amirault was convicted in 1986, and spent 18 years in prison before being paroled in 2004, according to GBH. Amirault Lefave was convicted in 1987 and served eight years in prison and 10 more on probation.

Violet Amirault, the siblings’ mother who opened the daycare in 1966, was also convicted in the 1987 trial, and served eight years in prison, GBH reported. She died within a few months of her release.

“The investigations and prosecutions of the Amiraults in the 1980s took place without the benefit of scientific studies that have in the intervening years led to widespread adoption of investigative protocols designed to protect objectivity and reliability in the investigation of child sex abuse cases,” Baker said in a news release about the pardons.

“Given the absence of these protections in these cases, and like many others who have reviewed the record of these convictions over the years, including legal experts, social scientists and even several judges charged with reviewing the cases, I am left with grave doubt regarding the evidentiary strength of these convictions. As measured by the standard we require of our system of justice, Gerald Amirault and Cheryl Amirault Lefave ought to be pardoned.”