Part of the difficulty about these crimes is that they frequently turn out to be "he said, she said" cases, where it is ultimately a judgment call on the part of police, prosecutors, and, ultimately, juries whether they believe one side of the story or the other.
This seems to be the case in a story being reported in The Times Picayune about a 19 year old woman who alleges that she was gang raped by four men when she was visiting the city from Kentucky for VooDoo Fest. Its a terrible story and, supporting the woman's claim, one of the men involved has already pled guilty to simple rape and will testify against the others.
None of this stopped comments attacking this woman from appearing on the series of stories about the case. This one, posted a day and a half ago, is fairly representative:
om23 February 23, 2011 at 1:57PM
From testimony presented in this article, it sure sounds like the "victim" was a willing participant in some dirty, dirty sexcapades. Apparently she suddenly got some scruples about it, but instead of looking in the mirror, she is blaming the other participants. Like I stated earlier, I'm basing my opinion on the information presented in this article. I was not a fly on the wall. You typically don't giggle, smoke weed in your underwear with, and hug your rapists.
"I think, for instance, that the names of suspects and defendants, like the names of alleged victims, should not be printed until they are convicted"
ReplyDeleteDespite the risk of ruining someone's reputation or exposing victims to possible embarrassment and more stress, printing names is a check on the government taking citizens in the middle of the night without telling anyone. I think it's a safeguard to abuse of holding people in custody without anyone knowing.
James, I see what you are saying but I am almost certain that, from the perspective of people accused, there would be a preference for anonymity. Though it seems like your concerns go beyond the individuals accused.
ReplyDelete