s_knight8
2004-07-26 15:21:44 UTC
http://www.coloradoan.com/news/stories/20040726/news/919349.html
The defense, in pushing for this ruling, wants the jury to believe that the
accuser wasn't raped because she's a slut. Or better yet, believing she
won't have the stomach for the public scrutiny, they think she'll drop the
case.
Rape is one of the only crimes that we excuse by turning the victim into the
culprit. We've all heard the rationale: He couldn't stop because she was too
flirtatious, too promiscuous, her skirt was too short, her pants too tight,
she touched him, she kissed him, she went to his hotel room.
The din of excuses too often drowns out the "no."
So Colorado has a rape-shield law -- just like every other state -- which
says a woman's sexual history is "presumptively irrelevant." It's designed
to protect the victim from humiliation, thus encouraging her to press
charges and participate in a trial. Without it, women suffer in silence, and
justice is emasculated.
Consider the second story on that Anchorage news page: the scandal at CU in
which nine women said they were raped by men associated with the football
team. Not one of those cases has seen the inside of a criminal court. In
May, Attorney General Ken Salazar decided against pressing charges. Some
would lead you to believe this meant nothing happened and the football
program was vindicated.
Instead, what we should know -- from experience and from Salazar's own
assessment -- is the women involved were reluctant to press charges. Already
victimized, they chose not to go through the degradation Bryant's accuser
now faces.
It doesn't mean a crime wasn't committed. It just means no one will pay for
it.
I don't know what happened in Bryant's room that night. Maybe, as he has
said, all he did that night was cheat on his wife. I do know, however, that
Ruckriegle's decision moves us one step closer to never knowing.
If the attorneys and the judge and the fans who salivate at the feet of a
ball player bully this woman into silence, all women are put at greater
risk.
The defense, in pushing for this ruling, wants the jury to believe that the
accuser wasn't raped because she's a slut. Or better yet, believing she
won't have the stomach for the public scrutiny, they think she'll drop the
case.
Rape is one of the only crimes that we excuse by turning the victim into the
culprit. We've all heard the rationale: He couldn't stop because she was too
flirtatious, too promiscuous, her skirt was too short, her pants too tight,
she touched him, she kissed him, she went to his hotel room.
The din of excuses too often drowns out the "no."
So Colorado has a rape-shield law -- just like every other state -- which
says a woman's sexual history is "presumptively irrelevant." It's designed
to protect the victim from humiliation, thus encouraging her to press
charges and participate in a trial. Without it, women suffer in silence, and
justice is emasculated.
Consider the second story on that Anchorage news page: the scandal at CU in
which nine women said they were raped by men associated with the football
team. Not one of those cases has seen the inside of a criminal court. In
May, Attorney General Ken Salazar decided against pressing charges. Some
would lead you to believe this meant nothing happened and the football
program was vindicated.
Instead, what we should know -- from experience and from Salazar's own
assessment -- is the women involved were reluctant to press charges. Already
victimized, they chose not to go through the degradation Bryant's accuser
now faces.
It doesn't mean a crime wasn't committed. It just means no one will pay for
it.
I don't know what happened in Bryant's room that night. Maybe, as he has
said, all he did that night was cheat on his wife. I do know, however, that
Ruckriegle's decision moves us one step closer to never knowing.
If the attorneys and the judge and the fans who salivate at the feet of a
ball player bully this woman into silence, all women are put at greater
risk.