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A 10-year nightmare over rape conviction is over

ric27

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A 10-year nightmare over rape conviction is over - latimes.com

Banks had served five years in prison for the alleged rape, and now he was unemployed and weary. So he replied to Wanetta Gibson with a question: Would she meet with him and a private investigator? She agreed.

At the meeting, which was secretly recorded, Gibson said she had lied. "No," she was quoted as saying, "he did not rape me."

Anyone want to venture a guess on what this dude had to do to survive in prison on a rape charge?
 
He was a fool to have plead guilty, as it leaves no recourse to sue the accuser (or the state). As usual it is the taxpayers that lose in the end as they paid this liar $1.5 million in tax money (via the schools fault in the non-rape), now long gone I would bet.
 
He was a fool to have plead guilty, as it leaves no recourse to sue the accuser (or the state). As usual it is the taxpayers that lose in the end as they paid this liar $1.5 million in tax money (via the schools fault in the non-rape), now long gone I would bet.

Banks had a choice: He could take the he said-she said case to trial and, if convicted, risk being sentenced to 41 years to life in prison. Or, as his lawyer advised, he could accept a plea deal.


From a public perspective is that most people equate a plea bargain as an admission of guilt when it is normally just trying to not end up ****ed over even worse.

The system forces you
 
I foresee a lawsuit, but does this b**** have any money to sue for?

Rape is a terrible crime, but surely there has to be more than her word against his to get a conviction, doesn't there?
 
So where is she? What are the charges against her?

She better be in ****ing jail now - you don't utterly destroy someone's life so cruely over some stupid 'what my mommy thought of me' crap - and then just get away with it.

Justice = tossing her lying skank ass in the clink and losing that damned key.
 
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He was a fool to have plead guilty, as it leaves no recourse to sue the accuser (or the state). As usual it is the taxpayers that lose in the end as they paid this liar $1.5 million in tax money (via the schools fault in the non-rape), now long gone I would bet.

You've obviously never been around or have experience dealing with our "justice" system. With a charge like rape, the prosecutor will give you a chance for a plea deal, plea guilty and get a much shorter sentence from a lesser charge. Plea not guilty, make your victim testify in front of a jury watching her cry, and they will bury you alive. I've seen people go from 2 years probation to 25 years in prison by pleading not guilty and going to trial.

Like I said, I don't agree with our "justice" system but its what we have. This thread is yet another reason why I think they should abolish the sex offender registry.
 
Pleading guilty, even when one knows he's innocent, isn't ground to dismiss this man's claim to recompense at all. Often time's one's lawyer, who may even believe you are guilty, will advice you to plead guilty as part of a deal if he thinks you can't win in court, maybe the evidence seems to be so stacked against you the reasonable option is to plead for 10 years with parole as opposed to what appears to be a certain likelihood of 25 without. Fear of being locked away for 25 can make you plead for 10. Its an in perfect aspect of our legal system, but it happens and there's articles on how prosecutors can use it to draw guilty pleas from people by threatening them with their very freedom.
 
So where is she? What are the charges against her?

She better be in ****ing jail now - you don't utterly destroy someone's life so cruely over some stupid 'what my mommy thought of me' crap - and then just get away with it.

Justice = tossing her lying skank ass in the clink and losing that damned key.

This, the bitch should be behind bars.
 
Not just that; but the penalty for being caught lying about any crime that led to a guilty conviction and sentence *because* of such lies should have a horrifically harsh sentence to deter the convenience of the lie to begin with if it's overturned and found to be completely false from the beginning like this.

You have to be one sick person to treat someone like that . . . our worry over 'punishing the victim and deterring them from reporting the crime' shouldn't put countless innocent men in jail like this - it happens quite frequently, I'm sure.

Apparently it could happen to anyone - for no damn reason at all. to convict someone there should be real evidence; not a story = sorry = no matter what crime we're talking about a story should never *ever* be 'enough'
 
Apparently it could happen to anyone - for no damn reason at all. to convict someone there should be real evidence; not a story = sorry = no matter what crime we're talking about a story should never *ever* be 'enough'

The problem with other sex offenses like child molestation, there is NO evidence whatsoever, just the testimony of a child. Many men are in prison today because of a young child coerced to lie by one parent about their other parent touching them. The child makes a statement to police, or no statement at all and the mother makes a statement, the man is offered a plea deal and a lawyer saying they will bury you if you go to trial and put that child on the witness stand. So he pleas out just to avoid 25 years in the clink with a bunch of inmates that want to kill him for what he "did."

Long gone is the fact that the whole thing is made up by a manipulative and hateful ex-wife who wants to get back at him for things he did, or was perceived to have done, that pissed off the ex wife.

Look at that teacher who caught those little girls in a sex act. The little girls reported the TEACHER for touching them and she spent her life savings, and in the mean time her reputation was ruined, to try to defend herself. She was found not guilty and there are still people that want her head on a pole thinking she touched those girls. Come to find out the girls were touching each other, and when caught, turned on the teacher that caught them.

That wonderful woman will never teach again as her reputation is ruined, she'll always be "that teacher accused of touching those little girls." Just the ACCUSATION is enough to ruin someones reputation. That's what people just don't realize.
 
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In a more perfect world, a Prosecutor would care as much about innocence as guilt, in order to be certain of justice. Unfortunately, we have an adversarial legal system in which both sides are liars and actors for the sake of victory, not justice.

I think that too many people are wrongly convicted. It doesn't seem to bother anyone, I never hear much of an outcry over this. Seems like if you don't get the death penalty, its no biggie that your life is destroyed. Something seems wrong about that.
 
In a more perfect world, a Prosecutor would care as much about innocence as guilt, in order to be certain of justice. Unfortunately, we have an adversarial legal system in which both sides are liars and actors for the sake of victory, not justice.

I think that too many people are wrongly convicted. It doesn't seem to bother anyone, I never hear much of an outcry over this. Seems like if you don't get the death penalty, its no biggie that your life is destroyed. Something seems wrong about that.

Its worse than that, actually. There are people on this forum, after having been told the immense number of innocent people found on death row, have said things to the tune of "Well, most of them are guilty, so I stand behind the death penalty."

That is down right ****ing scary.
 
Its worse than that, actually. There are people on this forum, after having been told the immense number of innocent people found on death row, have said things to the tune of "Well, most of them are guilty, so I stand behind the death penalty."

That is down right ****ing scary.

Agreed....

Sure there's due process and I'd like to think the system works in most cases. But with so many death row convictions overturned and plenty of studies showing many don't get a fair shake, you've got to wonder if the system isn't flawed a bit?
 
Agreed....

Sure there's due process and I'd like to think the system works in most cases. But with so many death row convictions overturned and plenty of studies showing many don't get a fair shake, you've got to wonder if the system isn't flawed a bit?

of course it's flawed - I see nothing wrong with keeping someone in jail and alive as an alternative.
 
of course it's flawed - I see nothing wrong with keeping someone in jail and alive as an alternative.


Its flawed because despite everyone's wish to the contrary, "justice" is expensive in this country.
 
Its flawed because despite everyone's wish to the contrary, "justice" is expensive in this country.

What's the classic comment "it takes more to kill someone off than to let them live"
 
What's the classic comment "it takes more to kill someone off than to let them live"

as far as I am concerned, the only folks who should be exectuted for crimes, are those who admit to having committed the crime and the police have verified their admission with hard evidence.

other than that, the danger of executing even one innocent man, is too great to bare.
 
Perhaps, but this accuser was no rocket scientist and had given some mixed up versions of events prior to trial. I understand that most public defenders are not that bright, but I would never plead if not guilty. The burden of proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, still rests with the state and there was only a single "witness" for the state.
 
Interesting case and interesting reactions here.

I really don't think it is so black and white. She was 15 or 16 sophmore and he was a senior standing 6'4" and weighing 225 pounds. He went out of class to make a phone call and ran into her with them ending up having sex.

Can almost picture this becoming one of those Martin-Zimmerman threads. He should have made the phone call and returned to class and she should have went to her class. Perhaps she got in over her head with the older male and lost her virginity and then panicked and said it was rape. She definitely got in over her head and cost a young man an unfair pusnishment which I feel is similiar to Zimmerman getting in over his head.

I don't think the Zimmerman-Martin case is black and white and neither do I feel this one is.
 
You've obviously never been around or have experience dealing with our "justice" system. With a charge like rape, the prosecutor will give you a chance for a plea deal, plea guilty and get a much shorter sentence from a lesser charge. Plea not guilty, make your victim testify in front of a jury watching her cry, and they will bury you alive. I've seen people go from 2 years probation to 25 years in prison by pleading not guilty and going to trial.

Like I said, I don't agree with our "justice" system but its what we have. This thread is yet another reason why I think they should abolish the sex offender registry.

WRONG. I have been so charged. I was 18, she was 14 and I was scared, but I held my ground. I met her in a bar, she had fake ID from her cousin. We were never alone together as I was with another couple that took us to her home and dropped her off, late, about 1 am. Her parents were very upset that she had been out late and beat her until she admitted being with me at the bar. The police arrested me the next weekend as we had arrainged to meet there again then, to go to the beach. I spent 3 days in jail before making bail (property bond). The whole 'rape' story was BS but the charges were filed and I went to court. The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence, as by the tiral date she told the police/DA the truth, that there was no rape or intercourse at all, so the state had no case. I had the fortune of having witnesses and an honest 'victim', but no way I would plead out -ever.
 
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WRONG. I have been so charged. I was 18, she was 14 and I was scared, but I held my ground. I met her in a bar, she had fake ID from her cousin. We were never alone together as I was with another couple that took us to her home and dropped her off, late, about 1 am. Her parents were very upset that she had been out late and beat her until she admitted being with me at the bar. The police arrested me the next weekend as we had arrainged to meet there again then, to go to the beach. I spent 3 days in jail before making bail (property bond). The whole 'rape' story was BS but the charges were filed and I went to court. The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence, as by the tiral date she told the police/DA the truth, that there was no rape or intercourse at all, so the state had no case. I had the fortune of having witnesses and an honest 'victim', but no way I would plead out -ever.

What do you mean "wrong?" What I said happens has been documented many times over. Just because it didn't happen to you does not mean it doesn't happen regularly.

False Rape Society: Young man falsely accused of rape tells False Rape Society his gripping story

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/..._things_system_solomon_JyyLFVitMM4bx63gpD1ouI
 
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Before DNA alot of men were falsely convicted of rape..
 
Before DNA alot of men were falsely convicted of rape..

There is such an emotional bond with the victim of a sexual assault that juries tend to "error on the side of caution" rather than put a potential rapist back on the street, they convict even if they aren't sure.

The problem lies in that with things such as molestation, with no evidence, true to God real molestations don't leave evidence except for an honestly harmed child. But a child being honest and a child faking it look identical up on the witness stand. Therein lies the problem.
 
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