Thursday, April 27, 2006

I Guess This is Going to be a Very Interesting Trial

The Duke lacrosse rape case has another added item...the accusers father claims his daughter was sodomized with a broomstick. If this is true, then my sympathies go out to her. That is a very disgusting and degrading thing to have happen to her.

I am a bit skeptical at this point. If she had gone to the hospital after the attack and they ran a standard rape kit, some evidence of sodomy with a foreign object would have to be present. If it were a broom stick it would appear to me, due to the violence of the act of sodomy, that some splinters, paint, or varnish residue would be found. Now it is possible that no evidence outside of the trauma existed, but that just seems unlikely.

It has also been said that she is considering dropping the case. Before we jump on the "See! I knew she was lying!" bandwagon, this is very common for all rape victims to want to drop the case due to public or emotional pressure. If she and the prosecution team have hard evidence that the males who were accused violated her, then it needs to go to court so justice can be served. However, if she is inventing this story to cover for something else, then she needs to PUBLICLY apologize to the Duke lacrosse team and to the general public who have rallied around her.

1 comment:

dakboy said...

3 words:

Burden. Of. Proof.

Last I checked, the prosecution still had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants are guilty.

The lack of generally-accepted evidence, combined with the weekly changes in the accusers story, are going to make this increasingly difficult. Her best witness has already changed her story - first the second stripper said "no, it didn't happen" then later she reversed and said "oh now I do think it happened." Tell ya what - gimme a call when you move past "I think..." and get to "I know..." because justice needs to be based on facts. She won't make a very good appearance on the witness stand. If she's even called, I'd almost expect the defense to call her as their witness.

Too many of these cases are tried in the media, and even result in guilty verdicts in court, because of emotional "evidence" and not cold, hard proof. If there's hard evidence, get these young men their constitutionally-protected speedy trial. If the prosecution is still trying to find a case they think they can win, maybe one doesn't exist and they need to stop wasting everyone's time and money, and formally clear the defendants.

I have to disagree that the accuser would owe her public supporters an apology if this is all a fabrication. Her supporters would owe the accused an apology. And she should stand trial for false charges, in addition to some sort of punishment for the DA.