- Law professor Michael Dorf has written a good FindLaw article – “Can Kobe Bryant Be Convicted on ‘He Said, She Said’ Evidence Alone?” Among other things, he punctures the myth that rapes are the only cases where juries can decide guilt based on one person’s word versus another’s. He also has a good discussion of rape shield laws.
- I thought this sarcastic comment, left on TalkLeft by Kynn Bartlett of Shock & Awe, was too good not to quote.
I always forget that there’s a rulebook which says how women should act before and after a rape. Clearly, if she isn’t following the rules, she must not have been raped. After all, everyone KNOWS there’s only one way to deal with something like this. If, say, your coping mechanism isn’t fully in line with (mostly male) expectations, then there was never a rape.
Too many of the “who needs a trial, Kobe’s obviously innocent” group seem to beleive that if a woman is actually raped, she does nothing with the rest of her life but hide in her room weeping, perhaps taking a break from her weeping now and again in order to browse through information about local nunnaries. There is no “right” way for rape victims to act; nor is rape a crime that happens exclusively to conventional people with no blemishes on their past or their psyche. that an alleged victim once had an overdose, or may even had made a joke about her (alleged) attacker’s private parts, doesn’t prove that she’s a liar.
- The text of many Colorado sexual assault laws can be found here.
@CharlesS: Vance thinks he's king, but doesn't realize that he isn't even venomous?
I’m glad you liked my snarky comment. :)
I don’t really have an opinion on the Kobe case — I don’t have enough basis on which to conclude that he’s innocent or guilty.
But I simply can’t stand the Bad Logic which says that she’s “not acting right.” Especially since that claim seems to be made no matter what the (alleged) victim does.
No one has yet made a convincing argument that says exactly what the “right way” to react should be, and what it means if someone violates these (unwritten) supposed societal laws. The guy’s innocent if she’s not acting destroyed enough?
Anyway, that’s the root of what I meant by the comment, and I am glad to see that you and I agree on this.
–K
I’ll wait for the verdict.
I’m with the “no opinion” crowd. As I commented on an earlier post, there are two vital principles at stake here: 1) the accused is innocent until proven guilty; and 2) all charges of rape must be taken seriously. These should be no-brainers, but apparently the no-brainers running the mainstream media have not received the memo. I was glad the judge barred cameras from the court room. Who needs another O.J. trial? Which this most likely would have become, given the intensity of media speculation on the case based on little evidence and a lot of character assassination. The best thing is to click through news chat shows with too many lawyers and proceed directly to The Daily Show. Or, y’know, read a book.
The media circus is out of control on this. Let’s just the jury does the right thing based on the evidence. I’m waiting for the jury verdict, too. No need to get sucked in the drama.
Adam Studnicki
Injury Lawyer
Studnicki, Jaffe & Woods, PLLC
http://www.sjwlawyers.com
What most don’t realize about a rape trial is what truly decides guilt in court. This will come down to what he said v. what she said happened in a closed room with only the two of them as eye witnesses. Any other evidence in such a trial can be discredited easily by a good attorney (which Kobe has many of).
Therefore, the one who is more credible will win this trial and the actions of the accuser after the event will be come very important to the crediblity of the victim of the crime. This is very unfortunate but true.
Whose word would you trust? That of a pro athlete who is previously been seen as nothing but an ideal citizen who receives million dollar endorsesments because of his character and marketability as a role model and family man or a teenager who is known to have sex with many different partners during the time of the alleged rape.
Whether he is guilty or not, this is why I think this trial has already been decided. It can be decided he said v. she said because Kobe isn’t Mike Tyson. He wasn’t seen hitting on her before the incident and he does not have an abusive past. His lawyers make thousands of dollars an hour and the Eagle County prosecuters have repeatedly appeared similar to a deer in headlights. Also, the Colorado rape shield laws have already been bent by Kobe’s lawyers and they are just getting started.
But hey, I’m not a law professor, I could be wrong. I just call it how it is.
“Whose word would you trust? That of a pro athlete who is previously been seen as nothing but an ideal citizen who receives million dollar endorsesments because of his character and marketability as a role model and family man or a teenager who is known to have sex with many different partners during the time of the alleged rape.”
From what I’ve read, the physical evidence has been called into question, which is just fine–and which could understandably constitute reasonable doubt. Someone’s squeaky clean rep means nothing; Ted Bundy was regarded as a great, clean-living, nice guy. As for the accuser’s sexual activities, they wouldn’t sway me to think she was less credible; in fact, someone who has many different partners would be, IMO, far less likely to change her mind afterward and accuse someone of rape (one of the things she is accused of doing). Sex would just be sex to her, and if she was into star fucking, I don’t see why she’d create this stir if the sex was indeed consensual. Good lord, why ruin a perfectly good story to tell your friends–unless, of course, the sex *wasn’t* consensual?
Also, FWIW, hitting on someone doesn’t mean that they are going to rape them, or that they have raped them. Tyson’s moronic claims that he didn’t rape Desiree Washington because he never hit her didn’t help his case. Unfortunately, too many people agree with that assessment.
At this point, I have no opinion on Bryant’s innocence or guilt, though I am rather underwhelmed by the backward ideas that people still have about women who say they are raped.
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