Why is there so much support for Leonor Cipriano from McCann supporters?

[Jean-Pierre]

So rather than just type on here Carana, why don't you take your concerns to the Portuguese Judicial System ?

and likewise admit, Portugal is far from unique in what can happen to some prisoners.

I am assuming that this comes the "making a helpful suggestion to a fellow poster" category, rather than the "goading" one.   

[Carana]

So rather than just type on here Carana, why don't you take your concerns to the Portuguese Judicial System ?

and likewise admit, Portugal is far from unique in what can happen to some prisoners.

Show me where I have ever said that Portugal was unique in terms of anything negative.

A number of the documentaries that I've watched concern the US... and a number of long-term prisoners, some on death row, have been exonerated due to the Innocence Project. Laudable, but many of these exonerations depend on re-examining exhibits (e.g., of murder weapons, duly preserved, for DNA).

That isn't even a possibility in this case. Apart from the fact that there never was any incriminating DNA evidence, the entire judicial system is different.

For some reason (perhaps beyond the control of the initial defence lawyers), the extent of the defence comes across as if they were defending little more than a DUI case.

[John]

The PJ couldn't find the child and decided that therefore the Ciprianos had killed her. The PJ was sent off to produce her remains.

Whatever one's stance on whether police brutality is ever justified or not, this wasn't a case of the PJ using excessive force to save a child in imminent danger of death as they were already convinced that she'd been killed.

Well wouldn't you have been convinced since both her mother and her brother claimed to have killed her by accident?

[Mr Gray]

Well wouldn't you have been convinced since both her mother and her brother claimed to have killed her by accident?

they have also claimed they didn't kill her

[John]

so the PJ did do it...torture like this is not acceptable.....

You really don't understand it Dave but then most of the public don't get out either until shit happens to them too! 

[slartibartfast]

Even a quick skim of YouTube documentaries shows that prison inmates may present a variety of characteristics: a violent disposition, uncontrollable urges, low IQ or social skills, a need to beat their chests as alpha males / females to gain power, authority and privileges within a restricted sphere, a sense of justice (or just recreational fun) in meting out a different form of "punishment" behind bars.

The issue is not what happens in prison by inmates in this case. It concerns what happened at the PJ station, while she was under their protection.

In prison she would be under the protection of the prison service...

[John]

If she was beaten by fellow inmates why did the pj claim she had fallen down stairs inside the police station...what you are saying doesn't make sense. If she was beaten by fellow inmates why have the pj never claimed this...why didn't amaral use it in his defence....It's obvious she was beaten by the pj...it's what they do

Actually it was Leonor who stated she had fallen down the stairs in Faro police HQ but later withdrew it claiming she was told to say it.

[John]

Persons who commit acts of torture must get some enjoyment from this.  They wouldn't be capable otherwise.

Like Dave, you don't understand the pressures which the PJ were put under in order to solve the case.

[John]

Even a quick skim of YouTube documentaries shows that prison inmates may present a variety of characteristics: a violent disposition, uncontrollable urges, low IQ or social skills, a need to beat their chests as alpha males / females to gain power, authority and privileges within a restricted sphere, a sense of justice (or just recreational fun) in meting out a different form of "punishment" behind bars.

The issue is not what happens in prison by inmates in this case. It concerns what happened at the PJ station, while she was under their protection.

Not totally, if Leonor got a bashing in prison too then that is relevant.

[Carana]

Well wouldn't you have been convinced since both her mother and her brother claimed to have killed her by accident?

If there had been full AV videos accounting for their time in police custody, and what they had actually said during that time, I would certainly have reviewed it and may indeed have come to the conclusion that the police, and the equivalent of the CPS, had justified reasons (in conjunction with other cross-referenced evidence) to send the case to trial.

This isn't the situation in that affair. 

[John]

they have also claimed they didn't kill her

And most recently Leonor confessed to the truth (according to her) that brother João did it.

Dave, do you believe Leonor?

[Carana]

Not totally, if Leonor got a bashing in prison too then that is relevant.

According to the SC ruling, Leonor had been held apart from other prisoners due to that risk.

[Mr Gray]

Actually it was Leonor who stated she had fallen down the stairs in Faro police HQ but later withdrew it claiming she was told to say it.

I doubt you have any sort of cite for that

[Mr Gray]

Like Dave, you don't understand the pressures which the PJ were put under in order to solve the case.

we do...pressure to solve the case often leads to a miscarriage of justice I would think

[John]

If there had been full AV videos accounting for their time in police custody, and what they had actually said during that time, I would certainly have reviewed it and may indeed have come to the conclusion that the police, and the equivalent of the CPS, had justified reasons (in conjunction with other cross-referenced evidence) to send the case to trial.

This isn't the situation in that affair.

The only confessions which matter are those given freely and not as a result oif torture.  We are thus left with the original confessions in 2004 and Leonor's confession by affidavit in 2009.