6-12-07 Gag Me With A Gavel, pt 3
As this story continues to unfold, albeit too slowly to ever be able to qualify as a "speedy trial," the most basic fact of these cases continues to be missing. WHO made the original complaint? If the sexual activity was consensual, then it couldn't have been the girls involved, and it certainly couldn't have been the boys who were charged. So, who was it that made the original complaint?
The most recent developments, reported in this NY Times story from yesterday, certainly dispels my previous musings regarding the racial overtones of the case, but also explicitly brings that very same thing up. It turns out that the girl was also African-American, as is Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, who is vigorously prosecuting this case. He's prosecuting it so vigorously, in fact, that even now that an appeals judge has thrown out the verdict completely, this southern Baptist prosecutor STILL won't let it go!
This has apparently devolved into yet another case of a prosecutor who's stuck with his "I'm right, and I'll never back down..." stance, even if the rest of the world stands outside that prosecutor's office chanting in protest. The Duke rape case has demonstrated what happens to the prosecutors when they admit they're wrong, so we can expect that no prosecutor will ever do that again. Standing up for what one believes is right can be admirable. Sadly, standing up for what one believes is right can also be carried well past any semblance of sanity.
The most recent developments, reported in this NY Times story from yesterday, certainly dispels my previous musings regarding the racial overtones of the case, but also explicitly brings that very same thing up. It turns out that the girl was also African-American, as is Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, who is vigorously prosecuting this case. He's prosecuting it so vigorously, in fact, that even now that an appeals judge has thrown out the verdict completely, this southern Baptist prosecutor STILL won't let it go!
This has apparently devolved into yet another case of a prosecutor who's stuck with his "I'm right, and I'll never back down..." stance, even if the rest of the world stands outside that prosecutor's office chanting in protest. The Duke rape case has demonstrated what happens to the prosecutors when they admit they're wrong, so we can expect that no prosecutor will ever do that again. Standing up for what one believes is right can be admirable. Sadly, standing up for what one believes is right can also be carried well past any semblance of sanity.
posted by Jeff Barnard at 5:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home