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Accused but well innocent of rape.

MrPeanut said:
How often does the "court of public opinion" put someone in prison?
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How often does the 'court of opinion' ruin someone's life forever? That's a kind of prison, no?
 
molten_dragon said:
What I don't get is why they needed to wait for police to hand over the records of her messages to him. Wouldn't they be on his phone or computer too? Why did he not immediately show them to his defense attorney?
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Not everyone keeps all their texts. Actually, can a phone have the room to hold over 40 thousand texts? And that's just from one person. I'm not really a techy person, so Idk.
 
JMR said:
This case happened in London. It certainly seems this guy had an awful experience with the courts, but it was not US courts.
Most cases of rape on campus, or charges of rape on campus, are mediated by the college and rarely does anyone go on to a trial, much less to jail.

I agree innocent until proven guilty before sentences can be imposed. The fact that one woman seems to be a liar does not make all women liars.
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Not just women. All people are liars.

In many cases, we don't try to lie, we just do. It's the way we're built.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
Never. But it can destroy your life. I certainly think the vast majority of the women are telling the truth. But even if only a couple percent are lying or misremembering, that is still thousands of lives destroyed per year.

I’m not going to pretend that I have a solution to the problem, though.
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The problem, though, is that much of the "Me Too" stuff is less about the Harvey Weinstein MO and more about the simple birds and bees kind of stuff.

Mixed signals are the stock in trade of romance.
 
JMR said:
I disagree with the "fact" that we are turning into a society where accusation means guilt. I think in many cases accusations are ignored, and the accusers harassed and vilified.
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The entire Trump-Russia investigation fiasco is based on unfounded accusations.

Despite this, the long trip to nowhere proceeds.
 
ludin said:
Accusations require proof in order to mean something. Without evidence they are nothing.
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Not today.

Passion, staged outrage and clever wording are all that is need to "convict in the press".
 
RetiredUSN said:
There are scenarios that can be just as bad emotionally as a prison cell.

The Atlanta bomber, Duke Lacrosse, and the Tawana Brawley cases all come to mind.
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There are undoubtedly thousands of cases in which some poor schlub has had an action blown out of proportion in the workplace and had to change jobs as a result.
 
MrPeanut said:
That's the real point I'm trying make. It is human nature to judge people based on claims that are made about them. Can it be unfair sometimes? Of course it can. The reality is that we almost never actually wait for a trial and a verdict before we form our opinion. I don't think there is a solution. I think it's something that we waste a lot of time talking about, but it is a part of who we are. The thing I worry about is the people that pluck a story here or there about someone being falsely accused, and then they extend that to all accusations. I think that is more dangerous.
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I may be reading what you're writing incorrectly.

That said, there is a difference between maintaining an open mind until all of the facts have come to light and merely dismissing any accusation out of hand.
 
spud_meister said:
The involved police and the prosecutor in this case need to be charged with obstruction of justice or something similar. The woman who accused him needs to face jail time, pay his legal fees, and be fined the amount of public resources she wasted.
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I disagree about the public officials if they did everything "by the book".

If they strayed outside the lines, then, yes, they need to be sanctioned. If they followed the rules and the rules produce inequity, then the rules need to be changed.

The accuser, on the other hand, should definitely be punished. I don't know if this is defined under law or not.
 
molten_dragon said:
What I don't get is why they needed to wait for police to hand over the records of her messages to him. Wouldn't they be on his phone or computer too? Why did he not immediately show them to his defense attorney?
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He could have deleted them.
I probably would have blocked her number after a while.
 
code1211 said:
Not today.

Passion, staged outrage and clever wording are all that is need to "convict in the press".
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Welcome back the witch trials. She's a witch she's a witch, burn her burn her.
 
ludin said:
Welcome back the witch trials. She's a witch she's a witch, burn her burn her.
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One good outcome, if people have the eyes to see, is that perhaps the viewers will begin to watch news as I do.

The words chosen by the story presenter, the tone of voice, facial expression and video are the real story. The implied meanings are the intended take aways.

If people learn to SEE critically what is being used to present the story, they will understand an entirely different story than the narrative presented.

When Trump refers to "all people" or "all Americans", the medium(s) successfully misrepresents those inclusive phrases to be exclusionary and racist.

The medium is the massage.
 
code1211 said:
I disagree about the public officials if they did everything "by the book".

If they strayed outside the lines, then, yes, they need to be sanctioned. If they followed the rules and the rules produce inequity, then the rules need to be changed.

The accuser, on the other hand, should definitely be punished. I don't know if this is defined under law or not.
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They withheld key evidence that would prove the defendant's innocence. It wasn't until a new prosecutor came on board that the evidence was released and he was exonerated.
 
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