Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Clinton's client (1975 Hillary defends rapist of 12 yr old)
Politico.com ^ | February 24, 2008 | Ben Smith

Posted on 02/26/2008 6:01:21 AM PST by TexasCajun

Newsday's Glenn Thrush has that rarest of things: A new chapter to the Hillary's biography, and one that cuts sharply against a central part of her image: that she's spent her whole career fighting for children:

[T]here is a little-known episode Clinton doesn't mention in her standard campaign speech in which those two principles collided. In 1975, a 27-year-old Hillary Rodham, acting as a court-appointed attorney, attacked the credibility of a 12-year-old girl in mounting an aggressive defense for an indigent client accused of rape in Arkansas — using her child development background to help the defendant.

[snip]

[Clinton's] account leaves out a significant aspect of her defense strategy — attempting to impugn the credibility of the victim, according to a Newsday examination of court and investigative files and interviews with witnesses, law enforcement officials and the victim.

Rodham, records show, questioned the sixth grader's honesty and claimed she had made false accusations in the past. She implied that the girl often fantasized and sought out "older men" like Taylor, according to a July 1975 affidavit signed "Hillary D. Rodham" in compact cursive.

Clinton's aides point out, accurately, that she was bound to present her indigent client the best defense available, which she did: He was able to plead down to a much lesser offense.

But read the whole story. Thrush reconstructs the crime, Clinton's role as a legal "bulldog," and her defense through court and police documents, and interviews a range of parties, including the alleged victim.

It's really an astonishingly good piece of reporting.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: democratparty; elections; hillary; hillaryclinton; rape
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last
Seems Slick wasn't the first rapist Hillary defended.
1 posted on 02/26/2008 6:01:24 AM PST by TexasCajun
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: TexasCajun

Let’s hope the good people of OH and TX send them back to Chappaqua.


2 posted on 02/26/2008 6:05:15 AM PST by Red in Blue PA (Truth : Liberals :: Kryptonite : Superman)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red in Blue PA
send them back to Chappaqua

Hades, or Arkansas, please.

3 posted on 02/26/2008 6:06:32 AM PST by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: NativeNewYorker

NY voted her in.....they deserve her.

(Sorry to you)


4 posted on 02/26/2008 6:07:17 AM PST by Red in Blue PA (Truth : Liberals :: Kryptonite : Superman)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: TexasCajun

Don’t misunderstand me, I dislike Hillary as much as any conservative. However, if she was appointed by the court to defend this individual, she owed him her best effort.


5 posted on 02/26/2008 6:07:42 AM PST by scooter2 (The greatest threat to the security of the United States is the Democratic Party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TexasCajun
Before that, she was fighting to release the torture-murderers of Alex Rackley in New Haven, when she wasn't in Oakland fighting to save the Black Panther terrorists who murdered Betty Van Patten and ruled their ghetto with intimidation and violence.

Fighting for children, my ass.

6 posted on 02/26/2008 6:08:50 AM PST by Jim Noble (I've got a home in Glory Land that outshines the sun)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red in Blue PA

Well, if they both stay in Westchester....


7 posted on 02/26/2008 6:09:03 AM PST by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: TexasCajun

Regardless of what one thinks of H! or lawyers in general, a lawyer is supposed to defend the client vigorously, no matter what the charges are.........


8 posted on 02/26/2008 6:09:13 AM PST by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we do have consensus.......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: scooter2
Absolutely correct. She did her job and she did it well.
9 posted on 02/26/2008 6:09:52 AM PST by svcw (The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: scooter2
...if she was appointed by the court to defend this individual, she owed him her best effort....

And if a Republican had done this, he or she would be literally crucified in the press.

No mercy.

10 posted on 02/26/2008 6:10:27 AM PST by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: TexasCajun

There is plenty of slime in Hillary’s background, but this isn’t. She was court appointed to represent the defendant. What else was she supposed to do?


11 posted on 02/26/2008 6:11:00 AM PST by dinoparty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TexasCajun
Clinton's aides point out, accurately, that she was bound to present her indigent client the best defense available, which she did: He was able to plead down to a much lesser offense.

Public defenders cannot refuse to take a case on moral or ethical grounds?
12 posted on 02/26/2008 6:12:05 AM PST by elizabetty (Mike Huckabee is such a loser he does not even recognized he lost a long time ago.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
"Regardless of what one thinks of H! or lawyers in general, a lawyer is supposed to defend the client vigorously, no matter what the charges are........."

I was under the impression that "defend" in this context meant to ensure that your client received a fair trial and that his or her constitutional rights were not violated in the process. It seems that most defense attorneys nowadays define the word as meaning "getting my client off scot-free" regardless of the charges.
13 posted on 02/26/2008 6:14:05 AM PST by FortWorthPatriot (No better friend, no worse enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: TexasCajun

If Kenneth Starr was a “ Big Tobacco Lawyer “ then Hillary is a “Child Rapist Lawyer “.


14 posted on 02/26/2008 6:16:27 AM PST by Inwoodian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

To: FortWorthPatriot

Are you suggesting that the creedibility of the accuser is not relevant to the dertermination of guilt?


16 posted on 02/26/2008 6:18:08 AM PST by dinoparty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

This sort of attack on a politician never works anyway. Bring on the issues that are important today.


17 posted on 02/26/2008 6:18:39 AM PST by cripplecreek (Voting CONSERVATIVE in memory of 5 children killed by illegals 2/17/08 and 2/19/ 08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: svcw

She did her job and she did it well.

____________________________________________

Did she? I followed the links. Doesn’t say if she won or lost the case.


18 posted on 02/26/2008 6:18:44 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (John McCain. 2008’s version of Bob Dole.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: elizabetty

I don’t think so. If that were the case, it would be nearly impossible to find an attorney who would be willing to take the case.


19 posted on 02/26/2008 6:19:54 AM PST by dinoparty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: TexasCajun

I got this as an email today.

THIS WILL OPEN YOUR EYES!

By Paul Harvey

Conveniently Forgotten Facts.

Back in 1969 a group of Black Panthers decided that a fellow black panther named Alex Rackley needed to die.

Rackley was suspected of disloyalty. Rackley was first tied to a
chair.Once safely immobilized, his friends tortured him for hours by,
Among other things, pouring boiling water on him.  When they got tired
of torturing Rackley, Black Panther member, Warren Kimbo
took Rackley outside and put a bullet in his head. Rackley’s body was later found floating in a river about 25
miles North of New Haven, Connecticut.

Perhaps at this point you’re curious as to what happened to these
Black Panthers? In 1977, that’s only eight years later, only one of
the killers
was still in jail. The shooter, Warren Kimbro, managed to get a
scholarship to Harvard and became good friends with none other
than Al Gore. He later became an assistant dean at a Connecticut
State College. Isn’t that something? As a ‘60s Radical you can
pump a bullet into someone’s head and a few years later, in the
same state, you can become an assistant college dean! Only in America!

Erica Higgins was the woman who served the Panthers by boiling the
water for Mr.. Rackley’s torture. Some years later Ms. Huggins was
elected to a California School Board.

How in the world do you think these killers got off so easy? Maybe it was in some part due to the efforts of two people who came to the
defense of the Panthers. These two people actually went so far as to
shut down Yale University with demonstrations in defense of the
accused Black Panthers during their trial. One of these people was none
other than Bill Lan Lee.

Mr.. Lee, or Mr.. Lan Lee, as the case may be, isn’t a college dean. He
isn’t a member of a California School Board. He is now head of the
United States Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, appointed by
none other than Bill Clinton.

O.K., so who was the other Panther defender? Is this other notable
Panther defender now a school board member? Is this other Panther
Apologist now an assistant college dean? No, neither!

The other Panther defender was, like Lee, a radical law student at
Yale University at the time. She is now known as the “smartest woman
in The
world.” She is none other than the Democratic Senator from the
State of New York —— our former First Lady, the Incredible
Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And now, as Paul Harvey said; “You know the rest of the story”.

This deserves the widest possible press. (where is our press???)

REMEMBER, “Hillary Rodham Clinton” IS RUNNING FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

This is proven right by SNOPES.COM


20 posted on 02/26/2008 6:21:57 AM PST by goodwithagun (My gun has killed less people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson