Reply #152: okay

[dr.strangelove]

I though I did address your points, but I will try again.

As to why would I refer to her as an "innocent woman" instead of simply "woman", I believe KitchenWitch, to whom I was responding, was making a simple comment on the recent trend in DU to attack the victim. I believe my use of the term innocent is appropriate given the context of the thread.

Criminals do not concern themselves with the consequences of their actions. In order to compare these men to other rapists who did not face repercussions one must assume that the allegations are true. To compare a man to someone else who actually commited a rape and did not face anything for it one would have to assume first that the man actually did the act. the alleged victim says the alleged perpetrators raped her, the alleged perpetrotrs say they did not. I was making a point that one of the two sides must be lying, but I would let the justice system figure out which. As for why would a rapist be worried about jeopardizing his education, he would not. I was commenting that it is not logical to assume guilt. If the person is guilty of the crime, then they would not be concerned with the loss of an education or the loss of freedom. Why would a rapist be worried about risking his freedom from prison, he would not. Why would a murderer be worried about jeopardizing his education or his freedom, he would not. These violent crimes do not usually involve what I would consider rational thought. That is my point. Either the parties were bad persons (which is my personal choice of words for criminals who know their activity and the results of it, but do it anyway), they were somehow not of sound mind or they are telling the truth and did not do what they are accused of. As for how many campus rapists ever face any repercussions, I have been involved with the defense of several convicted rapists/sexual assaulters. I know for a fact that rapists are convicted, due in large part to the courage of the victims to come forth.

On your comment that defense lawyers specialize in logical-sounding arguments that really doesn't hold up when you look at it, tells me a great deal about you. I now think so little of you that I have added you to my ignore list (you are only the seond DUer to make that list, so please take some pride in the offense you caused me with your comment on defense lawyers. You no doubt accomplished your goal of causing me a great deal of personal pain with you barbed comment.) I won't ever see your response to this, but feel free to say whatever you want back to me. Comments like yours are what is wrong with the defense of accused persons. Sorry that what I do bothers you so much. I take pride in being an important part of our judicial system. I don't get paid a penny for indigent criminal defense work, I do it as pro bono work and bust my ass to do it. I am fortunate enough to have a job where I can take on a few indigent cases and still pay the bills. I am sorry that someone who holds themself out as a progressive (at least I think the DU rules limit all postings to be progressive in nature) thinks so little of defense attorneys.