Coakley’s New TV Ad: ‘Protect’

Attorney General Martha Coakley has launched her second TV ad in this campaign and again it seems to be directed at women.  The focus is on keeping children safe.

Coakley is seen in the front yard of a house with several kids playing behind her.  She talks about leading a national effort to keep kids safe on line and how she won passage of a law that keeps sexual predators behind bars longer.

Probably the most famous and controversial sex offender Coakley has worked to keep in jail is Gerald “Tookie” Amirault.  He, his sister and his mother were all convicted of child sexual abuse in the notorious Fells Acres Day Care case.

In 2001, Coakley opposed the parole board’s recommendation that “Tookie” be let out. That was after his mother and sister were already released and there was new research that showed prosecutor’s leading questioning made it impossible to tell if the children were telling the truth.

She has been criticized for her decision. Here’s what Coakley recently told Blue Mass Group about the case:

Based on my own extensive experience with child abuse investigations and cases, and my thorough review of all the evidence, including that which is often taken out of context and deemed “exculpatory,” I also believe the convictions were sound, and that he received a fair trial. It is for all of the above reasons that I, as Middlesex District Attorney, opposed his commutation, and I stand by that decision to this day.