You mean like this case?

Link

Although I no longer practice, I was a criminal defense attorney. I followed the case at the time, watched what I could on television. (We did not have cable at the time.) I thought it was a weak case. My first wife, who was a practicing lawyer at the time (but not a criminal attorney), also found it to be a weak case. One of her law school classmates, then a prosecutor, also thought it was a weak case.

Of course the judge did not let those three other women testify that Smith had attacked them earlier. It would have been shocking if the judge had. Prior convictions do not usually come in unless the defendant testifies. Then they only come in to challenge the defendant’s credibility.

However, these allegations were not even convictions. They had never been tested in court, let alone proved true.

Strangely, in a rape case, we are supposed to throw away all the rights that a criminal defendant normally receives. Forgive me if I dissent.

I suspect if any of you are ever indicted, you will want to make use of every right that the legal system provides. I further suspect that most of you will stand by any son; husband; father; uncle or nephew to whom you are close if he is ever charged with rape. At most, you may have to convince yourself of his innocence first.

Strangely enough, spouses, fiancees, relatives and friends usually manage to do that also.

I was traveling a lot in 1991, and only recall that I thought that WKS was guilty. If I remember right, the defense attorney was Roy Black, one of the best in Florida. The cross-examination as described is very skillful, and facilitated by a couple of social realities. One is that we do a terrible job generally of educating members of American society and women in general that “nice” is generally over rated and often counterproductive. In addition, most people, men and women, are poor at threat recognition and putting their safety above the feelings of others. I would not be surprised if the witness referred to is more an example of that than of not believing that the rape occurred.

There is a constant tension between educating a potential or actual victim population and blaming the victim. Since the offender is the one responsible for the crime, it is repugnant to blame the victim, but I am constantly amazed at how unthinking people are with regard to their own safety. (And this is not limited to physical assaults – it can be ID theft and other such crimes, too.) When I taught college, I thought it was vital to ensure that my students would think critically about such things. I was at least happy to see that most of the women in the classes knew that classmates and fellow dorm residents were the real threat, not the “stranger”. I am constantly exposed to crime reports which among my professional responses leave me wanting to ask “what the hell were you thinking?”. I went to a burglary one afternoon, in which someone watching a house and caring for their friend’s dog held the dog (bullmastiff) off the burglar because she was afraid the dog would hurt the burglar. Huh? Damned right it would, and GOOD.

I hate it that a woman is considered un-feminist, if she stands by a family member or friend who has been accused of rape. I think it is fine, as long as the evidence is not staking up against the accused, then you may just be left with mud on your face.

One has to take it from an “I don’t know” perspective because the truth is no one knows for sure unless they were there. So there should be no judging of the accuser or the accused.