Gbaji wrote:
Ultimately, that's the problem with this case. Without hard physical evidence and eye-witness corroboration of rape, I just can't see how it's possible to get a conviction in this case.
Well take a look at the feverish responses from both sides throughout this thread. Rape is possibly the most divisive crime out there(no pun intended). It's the type of thing people feel passionately about, and rightfully so; the sort of accusation people often feel one way or the other about regardless of evidence, but merely because of preconceptions.
It takes very little to gain a sex assault indictment, and here's a bombshell: I'm specially qualified to comment on this because I was once upona time falsely accused and prosecuted. In my case it took an allegation and a vaginal tear one-tenth of a centimeter. I was seventeen, and so was she. We had sex in my parents' basement while they were upstairs, after the act I drove her home and kissed her goodnight, and offered to call her the next day. Well I didn't call her, but I don't think that alone drove her accusation. Her father had paged her off and on throughout the night(remember pagers? Every kid had one in the mid-nineties, 'least in my 'hood) until she turned the pager off. I've always had a suspicion that her father was angered and she felt the need to cover-up, but I'm getting off the point.
Couple days later detectives show up, haul me downtown, and interrogate me. I feel pretty confident, knowing that the act was consentual, but I was still sent to a juvenile dtention center until arraignment, when I was released into my parents' custody under house arrest, with a nifty little ankle monitor. I returned to high-school biefly, but it was a bit much too handle, and I ended up finishing my diploma with correspondence courses.
I never saw a trial. three years after the initial allegations I passed a polygraph exam and she recanted. Unfortunately the lawyer took my college fund. I had and have no recourse; the girl who falsely calls rape has that kind of power and irrefutability. I was however very close to going to trial, just a month or two away, and I seriously considered taking a plea where I would do probation and be labeled a sex offender for ten years, just because of the type of dialogue taking place in this thread. The issue is so incendiary, it's hard to imagine actually getting a fair trial, when your peers are entering the jury-box with their preconceptions.
What I'm saying is reserve judgement until we have more facts than just hearsay through the media and descriptions of the actors. Failing to do so jeapordizes the due process everyone involved is entitled to.
Oh yeah, I'm available to babysit, if anyone needs me.