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Governor explains Amirault decision Says she needed to 'live with myself' By Douglas Belkin and Frank Phillips, Globe Staff, 2/21/2002
Swift, speaking at an afternoon news conference, called her decision not to commute Amirault's 30- to 40-year sentence for molesting nine children under his care ''one of the toughest'' she has made as governor, but said, ''Ultimately I needed to live with myself, and that is the guiding principle I used.'' Swift said her staff performed a more thorough review of the case than the five-member Massachusetts Parole Board, which recommended commutation for Amirault in July, after its own investigation.
Governor explains Amirault decision
Swift defends decision
State panel votes to free Amirault
Click here for a brief history of events in the Fells Acres case.
But attorney James Sultan, flanked by Amirault's wife and three children, expressed dismay at Swift's disregard for a board he called professional, experienced, and ''extremely tough.'' ''Was her decision based purely on political self-interest, on an assessment of how it might affect her chances to be elected governor?'' Sultan said. ''Should a man's freedom depend on political polling, rather [than] upon what is right and just? Has Gerald Amirault become, in a very real sense, a poltical prisoner? The answers to those questions are self evident.'' The Parole Board had recommended commutation because, it said, the sentence was unusually severe compared with his codefendants and, ''It is clearly a matter of public knowledge that, at the minimum, real and substantial doubt exists concerning petitioner's conviction.'' Amirault was convicted of molesting nine children at the family-run Fells Acres Day Care Center in Malden, in one of the most sensational of a spate of day-care molestation cases around the country in the mid-1980s. His sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, and his late mother, Violet Amirault, were convicted in a separate trial. Both were later released on appeal. LeFave's sentence was reduced to time served. Amirault's defenders have noted that the methods used to interview child witnesses have since been discredited. Now, Sultan said, the family soon will choose one of three options left to Amirault. They will either seek early parole, an appeal of the sentence, or a new trial, he said. In her announcement, Swift said her first consideration was whether there was ''overwhelming evidence'' to contradict the jury conviction and two decisions by the Supreme Judicial Court upholding the verdict. ''I concluded there was not,'' she said. Swift said that she also considered the two guidelines for a commutation: that the sentence is too severe and that the person had made ''exceptional strides in self-development.'' ''Again, my answer was no,'' Swift said. ''I concluded after that review that the jury and the Supreme [Court] decisions should be upheld and that under the commutation guidelines commutation was not warranted,'' Swift said. Amirault's wife, Patti, took particular offense at Swift's reference to her husband's failure to rehabilitate himself. ''If he stays in there till the last day of his 40th year, he'll maintain his innocence,'' she said. ''When you're innocent, what effort can you make to rehabilitate?'' Swift said she reached her decision after an eight-month examination of the case by her legal staff, which involved more than 30 interviews. Among them was a 45-minute interview with Patti Amirault in the governor's office a week before Christmas. Patti Amirault, who spoke through tears during a 4 p.m. news conference, said Swift didn't want to discuss the facts of the case, just the sentencing. In retrospect, she said, she would have pressed Swift about the facts. Patti Amirault said the acting governor was ''hard to read'' and ''very businesslike,'' but said she left the State House feeling positive, largely because of the Parole Board's recommendation. After her family learned through the media of Swift's decision, Patti Amirault said she was devastated but not completely surprised. ''From the beginning, timing and politics have been against us,'' she said, referring to the intensely hostile environment against suspected child molesters in the '80s, as well the recent pedophile priest scandal. Peppered by questions for 20 minutes at the State House, Swift appeared tense and serious. She called the gravity of the case tremendous and said that, politically, it was a lose-lose situation. ''For decades, this case has evoked in different people, at different times, two horrifying nightmares, the sexual abuse of young children or the possible jailing of an innocent man,'' she said. But ultimately, she said, she concluded that the sentence was appropriate and consistent with other cases. Pressed on how she could come up with a far different judgment than the five members of the Parole Board, Swift said her staff conducted ''a more exhaustive review of all of the legal aspects'' than the board did.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 2/21/2002.
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