Posted on 12/17/2013 5:04:38 PM PST by OddLane
Eighty years -- that's about how long it took the state of Alabama to posthumously pardon the last three of nine men who were falsely accused and wrongly convicted of raping two white women on a train. They infamously were called the Scottsboro Boys, because the nine black men were just 12- to 19-years-old when they were arrested in 1931.
It turned out that the women, Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, had lied to police about the rapes. At one of the trials, Bates recanted her testimony, saying she had made it all up. Still, the all-white jury convicted the boys, one after another.
Forty-three years later, a similar story: This time it was Delbert Tibbs, who died recently of cancer. Tibbs spent nearly three years in prison in Florida after he was convicted in 1974 of a rape and murder that he had nothing to do with, according to the Florida Supreme Court.
Ancient history, you say? We've moved past those shameful days of unequal justice, you insist. Think again.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
“The problem with imprisoning accusers who recant is that it discourages recantation.”
Good point, that could be an issue. However, if there no repercussions, we are encouraging false accusations, since the accusation alone can be used as a very dangerous weapon. Along with accusing someone of domestic violence, or molestation, it’s one of the worst, and most effective character assassination tactics around (and all three are overwhelmingly used against men).
Saying that we need corroboration may help alleviate the chances of imprisonment for the falsely accused, but it does nothing to shield them from the consequences of the accusation on all other aspects of their life. So, it doesn’t reduce the value of the accusation as a weapon much either, and people will still choose to use it as such.
One thing we can do to help which shouldn’t really be controversial is a two-way rape shield law. If the accuser’s identity is protected, then the accused’s identity should also be protected, until an actual conviction has happened.
But I think there's a middle ground...something perhaps like a reverse statute of limitations, i.e. If you recant within one year, there's no criminal penalty, but you remain civilly liable. Recant between 2-5 years after the fact and face up to a year imprisonment. Over five years and you serve the full punishment the wrongly accused faced. That is only for those who recant. If the wrongful accusation is discovered independently of the accuser (i.e. by the defense counsel, law enforcement, etc.) all bets are off and the accuser receives none of the early incentives if discovered within the first five years.
It’s getting so that most people are quite skeptical of rape accusations, anyway.
I know a guy who was falsely arrested for rape.
He was the last guy you would ever think would have raped anyone and in fact he didn’t. He was head of a Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the city. He was a deacon in the First Baptist Church and a straight arrow if there ever was one.
The woman saw him driving by and got his tag number and accused him. It didn’t take the cops too long to realize they had the wrong guy but it took a few weeks before they caught the right one. He did not look anything like the guilty one.
He was able to get his arrest completely removed from the records.
False rape accusers should be prosecuted, and if found guilty, they should receive the same sentence that would have been awarded to the accused rapist. THEN they should be sued for all legal costs to the falsely accused rapist and the court.
AND JAILED!
After they are prosecuted and jailed.
False accusers should face the same sentence as the crime they lied about carries.
I wonder if they are including the false rape claim of Erica Kinsman, the gal who claimed Florida St QB Jameis Winston raped?
For some reason the media believes the White girl over the black athlete in this one....even though the gal’s story is bogus
Remember that the Scottsboro Boys’ trial was the Zimmerman trial of its day.
With help from the *American Communist Party*, the case was appealed. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed seven of the eight convictions, and granted thirteen-year-old Eugene Williams a new trial because he was a juvenile. They were also later aided by the *Communist Party USA*, a different organization.
Chattanooga Party member James Allen edited the Communist Southern Worker, and publicized “the plight of the boys”. The Party used its legal arm, the International Labor Defense (ILD), to take up their cases.
Two ILD attorneys were charged with attempting to bribe Victoria Price, the woman who recanted her testimony.
So the bottom line is maybe the boys were innocent, and maybe they weren’t. Unlike those who were clearly guilty, yet made into public causes for the far left, such as Sacco & Vanzetti, and twenty years later Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
The boys didn’t get a fair trial by today’s standards, which is not in doubt, but that does not prove innocence or guilt, either.
Yes.
It is almost impossible for men to prove their innocence.
> Yes.
Definitely. They ruin the lives of the men they accuse and do so exactly for that reason. I have a friend that works on those types of cases and he has told me an earful of the evil that some women have done to men either out of fear to their parents or husbands or to be plain vindictive. If the man is a rapist and guilty that’s an entirely different situation and the guy gets what he deserves.
I know of three men that were falsely accused that are serving time right now. My buddy is working on their cases to try to get them released.
But then, why stop at rape? Anyone who's FALSELY accused of a crime, arrested, jailed and put on trial (only to be found innocent later) should absolutely have the right to sue their accuser for false accusation and win civil damages.
Think about it: Even when one is falsely accused they still have to pay for a lawyer/legal team, and suffer other financial punishment (often loss of job) as well as social damage (loss of reputation, etc..)
Yes. For everything they are and ever will be worth.
That is the EXACT same flawed logic which states that the death penalty for rape could cause more murders. We are not lacking for rape/murders. The problems are ; there is no swift punishment for hands down guilty murderers and also prison should be a place feared beyond all destinations, it is not.
>>I know of three men that were falsely accused that are serving time right now. My buddy is working on their cases to try to get them released.<<
I pray he wins.
Then go aggressively after the perjurers.
they should be sued, and also serve the entire jail time their false accused served/would have served.
false accusations destroy peoples’ reputations and lives, and rob them of freedom when they are jailed for doing nothing.
everyone here should be against innocent people being tossed in jail for lies, no matter who tells them, or whatever rationalization they give for the lies.
>>I know of three men that were falsely accused that are serving time right now. My buddy is working on their cases to try to get them released.<<
I pray he wins.
Then go aggressively after the perjurers.
He’s gotten many out of jail that were falsely accused and had no prior criminal history save a few traffic tickets.
Cane them, Singapore style.
Twenty whacks, I say!
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