Just Ask My Children 2001

In 1982, parents Brenda Kniffen (Virginia Madsen) and her husband Scott Kniffen (Jeffrey Nordling) are arrested due to false accusations of satanic ritual abuse, child molestation and other acts of illegal activity. Two years later, following a systematic trial, they are found guilty and both sentenced to 240 years in prison without parole. Brenda and Scott have two young boys, Brandon and Brian Kniffen, who are played by various actors as they age from little boys to grown adult men in the foster care system.

Denver Dunn (Graham Beckel), a private detective, is hired soon afterwards to have the Kniffen parents exonerated.

Ms. Landry (Deirdre O’Connell), who worked as a guard in the prison, would show disgust towards Brenda at first, but as time passed, she would start to have doubts about Brenda’s guilt as American society began to be more critical of 1980’s “Satanic Panic” type cases.

It would be revealed that Scott and Brenda were wrongfully accused from the false accusations made 14 years earlier. In 1996, after serving the first 12 years in prison, Scott and Brenda were released and exonerated. Having missed their children, and missed seeing them grow up within those 12 years, the family’s reunion is bittersweet.What was also shown in the film was corruption from within the legal system, noting that the Kniffen boys were coached by social workers and prosecutor Andrew Gines (John Billingsley) to claim that the abuse had occurred.