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The so-called "Miami Method," developed in the 1980s by the office of Dade County State
Attorney Janet Reno, became a national model for vigilantly pursuing day
care sexual abuse cases. Reno set up a special children's unit inside the state
attorney's office staffed with "child experts" who specialized in cases of
child sexual abuse. The "Miami Method" utililized videotaped interviews with
children and expert testimony assuring jurors that the children should be
believed. A state law was changed to allow the children to testify from the
judge's chambers. The method also required physical evidence and the testimony of an adult eyewitness.
The so-called "Miami Method" was first used in the case of
Frank Fuster
. It was
also used to prosecute two other day care sexual abuse cases -- those involving
Grant Snowden and Bobby Fijnje. Here are summaries of the Fijnje and Snowden cases and excerpts from an interview with former Florida prosecutor David Markus in which he describes the "Miami Method."
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The state of Florida twice prosecuted Snowden for child sexual molestation. The
first time he was acquitted; the second time, prosecutors won conviction based
primarily on three witnesses and two pieces of physical evidence. Snowden was
sentenced to five life terms. After spending 12 years in prison, Snowden's
case was overturned in 1998 in a federal habeas appeal. Read FRONTLINE's
interviews with Snowden, his lawyer, and prosecutor David Markus, as well as a
summary of his case.
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Miami prosecutors charged 14-year-old Bobby Fijnje with sexually molesting a group of children he baby-sat at church. He was held in the Miami Juvenile Detention
Center for two years, refused the state's offer of a plea bargain, and finally
stood trial. The jury acquitted him on all charges in May 1991. Read
FRONTLINE's interviews with Fijnje and his lawyer, a summary of his case, and a
letter written to Janet Reno in which jurors explain why her office failed to
make a convincing case.
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In this excerpt from his interview in FRONTLINE's 1998 report "The Child
Terror," former Florida prosecutor David Markus explains the new approach and
procedures Janet Reno's office developed for pursuing child sexual abuse cases.
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