Dear Governor Lowry:
I have followed the Ingram case through various news articles and
Larry Wright's excellent book "Remembering Satan." I have also followed
the issues surrounding recovered memories and read material from both
sides of the debate. I am a professional scientist (chemist) so I understand
the scientific method and how knowledge should be obtained. The evidence
I have seen shows that the case against Paul Ingram is dubious, at best.
I urge you to investigate the handling of this case; I believe a fair
investigation would recommend freeing Mr. Ingram.
My recommendation is based on the fact that the accusations arose from
"recovered memories" obtained initially through a religious retreat and
later through therapy. Although it is possible that a small minority of
sexual abuse victims may at some point "forget" they had been abused (
(The claim that 1/3 of abuse victims don't recall their abuse arises from
a misrepresentation of a flawed study); there is not a shred a scientific
evidence that validates any procedure for recovering reliable memories of
abuse. In fact there are controlled experiments which demonstrate that
false memories can be induced and plenty of empirical examples where
various therapies (through therapists or self help books) have contributed
to the development of memories of traumatic events which can be proven
false. This includes memories of alien abductions, post traumatic stress
disorder with combat flashbacks in veterans who never saw combat, abuse
by people who were abroad or dead at the time the crimes were alleged to
have occurred, and bizarre satanic ritual abuse claims.
The latter appears in Mr. Ingram's case. It is true as one judge noted, Mr.
Ingram is in prison for incest and not ritual abuse; but the fact that
such allegations arose in the investigation should lead one to reconsider
the other allegations. I note that a most thorough investigation
has failed to find the evidence that the cermonies should left. In science,
when a method fails to produce reliable results for a know problem
we do not trust it to produce reliable results for an unknown problem.
Likewise, the fact that Mr. Ingram's two daughters made many accusations which
should have, but failed to, produce physical evidence should lead one
to doubt the accusations which would rely solely on their own words.
I know sure you have heard from the real memory experts such as Elizabeth
Loftus. Hopefully hearing from an outside and detached observer such as
myself will amplify their words and convince you to give Mr. Ingram either
a pardon or a chance at a real trial.
Thank you for considering my thoughts on this matter.
Sincerely,
Jonathan G. Harris
(affiliation for identification purposes only; this letter represents
my own personal views.)
(
geocities.com/jgharris7)