PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Weekly
Catholic group calls overturned Lynn conviction “win for justice”—but is it?
After serving 18 months in prison stemming from 2012 child endangerment charges, Philadelphia Msgr. William Lynn’s conviction was overturned last week.
The conviction stemmed from his covering up other priests’ sexual abuse and supervising priest Edward Avery as Avery was sexually abusing an altar boy in the 90s.
But the Pennsylvania Superior Court panel overturned the law because, they now say, the state’s child endangerment law was misapplied in this case.
At the time of the abuse, the law only applied to adults to regularly supervised children—not those who supervised other adults who supervised children. That law was broadened in 2007 to cover people like Lynn, when the abuse had already ended. And Lynn was the first conviction of someone who did not actually commit abuse, but supervised those who did.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.