The tone of Jonathan Thompson's brief report on the Jeffs trial conveys unwarranted skepticism about the validity of the prosecution (HCN, 10/15/07). "There was a time ... could go about their daily lives without much outside scrutiny," is probably a factually accurate statement but implies that scrutiny is akin to outside interference. Then there's a swipe at the national media as sex-obsessed. Again, true, but is there an implication that everyone who cared about the outcome of this trial was simply sex-obsessed rather than concerned about the pain of a young girl forced into a marriage that was repugnant to her? Consider the sentence, "His crime: arranging a marriage between two cousins, one 14 and one 19." Similar sentence construction is often used to express skepticism about legal prosecutions, e.g. "His crime? Jay-walking on a deserted street."

Marianne Davis
New York, New York