Man sues after wrongful rape conviction

I hope he gets every penny he asks for and then some!

And I hope the taxpayers take note that this judicial bumbling on filing some paper work cost them approximately $40,000 plus for the two years this man should not have been in jail since $20+ thousand is the price tag for keeping someone in prison for a year!

I'm not sure how you'd apply it, but if he was supposed to be released and it took 2 years, that sounds like kidnapping.

Technically, this poor man had a considerable portion of his life stolen from him. I hope he gets to live the rest of his days with millions of dollars. He deserves it for all the crap he had to put up with (especially considering all the money he could have made in those 13 years). I also agree, that those 2 extra years do constitute kidnapping. This reminds me of the David Milgaard case here in Canada. He was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder and had to spend 26 years in prison. He was reimbursed for this, thankfully. But you know, it makes me sick how this type of thing would only happen to a man. If a woman was wrongfully charged with sexual assault, they would do everything to try to prove her innocent. Then again, most female rapists get off scot free anyway. When a man is accussed of rape, it's more like "guilty till proven innocent".

Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!

I am friends with his mother. I've been involved in this case for several years, and I have to say that the issue at hand is incompetence, not any discrimination (it was random, could have been anybody's papers that were lost in the shuffle). And the original conviction was motivated by racial injustice, not gender injustice.

Yes, David was wrongfully convicted of rape, but it was not due to his gender. The fact is, for hundreds upon hundreds of years, men have been raping women, and although there is a rise in recent instances of women perpetrating sexual crimes (although notably most of those crimes are also against women or children), history demonstrates that men have been the rapists throughout history. This is, by and large, a male crime. That is not to say that there are no female sexual predators, because there most definitely are, but the logistics of the crime fairly necessitate that most rapists, especially the kind who commit the crime David was convicted of (attacker and victim were unknown to each other), require brute physical strength and anatomy that females do not possess. So, the overwhelming majority of rapists being male, there really is no case for gender discrimination being made against the man who was wrongfully convicted (as opposed to the large number of men who are rightfully convicted).

David's conviction happened in 1984. Now, in 2008, there is still a palpable air of racism in the town where the crime was committed. In 1984, the court didn't care which black man (or boy) had to pay for the crime, so long as someone did. David wasn't wrongfully convicted because he was male -- only a male could have been on trial for that kind of crime, and his gender really was beside the point, or else it was the point, but either way, he was wrongfully convicted because of his race, not his gender. If he were white, all of the circumstances leading up to his conviction would have been different, right down to the crappy police work and ambiguous witness identification.

I'm all for men -- all people -- having equal rights, and I support your cause as far as it can credibly be carried. But in this case, gender was completely beside the point in terms of the injustice. I agree that there are many injustices that are carried out toward men in certain areas (sexual harassment and false rape claims being certainly two of them). However, I think that the reason that people, including, I admit, myself, find your claims of injustice dubious is that, in most of the world, and in an overwhelming number of places right here in the USA, women are treated as second-class citizens, property, children, or commodities, still now in the year 2008. It is most definitely still a man's world, in almost every way. Yes, there are areas where things work in a woman's favor, such as sexual harassment suits and child custody cases, but there are far more ways that men still have the upper hand.

I know for a fact that all of the men who work in my department doing the exact same job, with the exact same education, as the women, those men who never pitch in to do the extras that I and the other females volunteer for, make more money than us. Since they started at the same rate of pay, and the difference is accounted for in merit raises that are based on our male supervisor's estimation of our merit, there is really no way to prove discrimination, so it's just the way it is. The only man in the department who makes less than me, despite the fact that I have been there longer than almost everyone, is the one uncertified staff member, but he still makes more than the uncertified female staff member. Somethings is wrong with that, but it's one of the many, many little injustices that women just deal with because that's the way it is, and we try to change it, but it never quite evens out.

I'm not saying that nothing unjust happens to men. I'm saying that you only have to wear the shoe on the other foot once every other Tuesday, but we wear them every single day. I'm saying that, from the perspective of someone who finds your claims hard to believe, you might consider framing your arguments in a more progressive way, perhaps a 'two wrongs don't make a right' sense...and that, as a rape victim, a victim of a male child molester, an underpaid female worker, and a woman who lives every single day thinking about how to protect myself because one in three women has been raped and one in four more than once, most victims of violent crime against strangers are women, women are more likely to be mugged, so fear and possible victimization is an every day reality for me, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth for men to claim injustice because two or three of a thousand reins of power have fallen out of your grip.

That being said, yes, David got the crap end of the stick, and yes, he deserves millions, and even though I don't fault the girl who mistakenly identified him (I personally know how bizarre everything looks from the eyes of a victim during a rape), the system screwed him over twice, and he deserves justice.

Several things in your post disturb me. One is that I think you strongly underestimate how often rape is committed against men. If you were a man, and you were raped, where would you go? What would you do? How would your claim affect your life? Think that a 'raped woman' is damaged goods? How do you think a raped man is percieved? Who would you tell? Who would you want to know? Could you even admit it to yourself? Do you think the courts and papers would protect your anonymity the way they do a woman's? Do you think that your assailant would ever be punished? Think about it.

You talk as one who is familiar with the case - and about the strength necessary to commit a rape - but in this case, David was 15, his false accuser 22. Perhaps the 22-year old false accuser couldn't hold off a 15-year-old attacker, but at this point, we know that she lied about who he was - so that wasn't an issue here. And, as you know if you think about it, there are a lot of very agressive women out there who don't take no for an answer, and although size isn't everything, there are a lot of large women out there that one wouldn't want to tangle with either.

Second to place this all as a case of bungling and not a case of bias is to miss the entire point. The victim (David) WAS wrongly convicted on evidence that WAS in fact either wrong, or circumstantial. The accuser apparently allowed this conviction to stand for over a decade without speaking out against it along with the prosecutor. Do you think that a woman who similarly raped a man would have gotten significant jail time? That her paperwork would have been bungled for years? There are government statistics on sentencing at least - you could look them up, I have, and the answer is women get significantly less time.

You raise race, and I think that race does make sense as a factor, but again, change the sex, and keep the race the same. Would this series of events happen? *Would a man be able to claim rape by a black woman and get her 'put away' on flimsy or no evidence?*

You rase the 'one in three women has been raped' canard. This has been debunked at length. Who is raping all these women? Where are they? They don't exist. Statistics are showing that far more men are accused than women are raped, and David is just one of many examples. A false accusation of rape can ruin a man's life - prosecutors and activists are eager to support and believe, as the news has shown us repeatedly over the last several years. The false accusation gives women great power over men, and women know it, and they use it.

Finally you go to talking about your relative income as opposed to your co-workers..... ...Is this supposed to justify David sitting in jail for over a decade while the woman who falsely accused him walked free and anonymous among other potential victims?

As I see it the system may be 'responsible' financially, but at the end of the day, it is the accuser who lied, who let the charges stand when she couldn't really identify her assailant, who made this injustice happen. I'd like to see HER pay.

MBTYIYS:
M

First off, LnGwStX, I'm sorry to hear about all the ordeals you lived through and the fear they cause. However, I disagree with what you said about David's conviction being based solely on racism. One demon that has reared its ugly head for centuries is black misandry, that is hatred of black men. It all started with the establishment of the KKK, whose founder was a women who propagated the belief that all black men were rapists out to get white women. They manipulated the white men into doing their dirty work by making them believe that in their racism they were protecting "white womanhood". Sadly, this stereotype of the black male is still alive today, as this case clearly demonstrates. David was "guilty till proven innocent", literally, and I feel for him.

That being said, I want you to understand that we are just as appalled by the unjust opression of women (that is the real discrimination and fears that women have to face, not the made up kind which the media tries to brainwash us with) as we are by misandry. Just so you know I'm not trying to imply that the fears and problems women face aren't real. I'm just indicating that sometimes it's skewed then used as propaganda.

I'm well aware that women are much more likely to be raped than men are, and that fact makes me uneasy. That isn't fair. But on the other hand, a lot of false rape claims are made or the wrong man is convicted and innocent men are incarcerated for crimes they didn't commit. That isn't fair either. We focus on misandry here because if we don't help the victims of it, no one will. We don't believe anybody should be discriminated against for any reason, unless of course they harm another person or their right to exist. Often times women harm men and get off without a punishment. Injustices like this need to stop. Just like if a man harmed a woman and wasn't punished, that would be equally apalling.

This site has made me feel a lot better about the world, as at one point I was deeply depressed by all of the hatred towards men that's allowed to propagate. Knowing that there's others who disapprove of this, both women and men gave me the solace I needed to cure my depression. It also gave me a sense of empowerment and ability to make a difference. I hope that you'll continue to stick around, as well. Women who admit that there's injustice against men are paramount to our cause.

Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!

Poster comes out of the blue making far-fetched, off-base claims of "hundreds and hundreds"(Why not "thousands and thousands"? One overexaggeration -- and/or lie -- is just as good as the next.) of years of women being raped(even though the article in question says nothing about that and is actually about a man being FALSELY accused), claims to personally know what happened and to be friends with the mother(Sure we believe that one), claims that rape is "a male thing"(Already been debunked), etc., etc.

Don't feed them man! Don't feed them!

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The domain of Mr. Reality

The Women are at Fault by Matthias Matussek

LnGwStX -- "... in the USA, women are treated as second-class citizens, property, children, or commodities, still now in the year 2008. It is most definitely still a man's world, in almost every way."

What planet is s/he living on?

"Linguistics?" (LnGwStX)

Cute, but not at all persuasive.

Perhaps s/he is a cunning linguist; though I read no evidence for the argument that "it's a man's world..."

Now, if s/he had quoted James Brown's actual lyrics, the post would make more sense.

"...but it wouldn't mean nothin' without..."

Well, hopefully you've heard the tune.

She's going to come back with an even more unbelievable "Womyn's Studies" primer on victim politics; then take all of you down the dark path of WKKK revisionist history and socialist nonsense.

You should have quit while you were ahead

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The domain of Mr. Reality

The Women are at Fault by Matthias Matussek

You're right, Mr. R. Though I sympathize with the actual victims of rape, I don't appreciate people trying to make it look like it's a crime that's committed by only one gender. Many stories end up on this site which disprove that. I also believe his/her argument that "it's a man's world" can be debunked about three hundred different ways. This person clearly has no interest in Men's Rights. She tried to make it seem like gender discrimination had nothing to do with the verdict in the case that sent an innocent man to jail for 13 years. Okay.. so let's imagine a black woman is accused of the same crime. Would she get the same sentence? There you have it. It's not just racism, not just misandry, but a combination of the two.

Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!

Though I sympathize with the actual victims of rape,

That's exactly what the author of the post wanted to achieve, emotional responses. Notice how she changed the debate from being based on FACTS(i.e. There are more false rape accusations -- such as this one -- coming from women than actual rape cases) to being based on EMOTIONS(i.e. Getting men to "sympathize" with the non-existent rape of a woman and the hysteria that comes along with it).

The "facts" concerning this article are simple and in plain English: He didn't commit an act of rape, the woman lied and they knew it , and yet he did the time anyway.

Women rely on overly emotional, histrionic, online shaming tactics and lies to continue the racist, misandric rape hysteria that keeps women in power.

Wake up men! Women have been running the racist, misandric rape hysteria scam on you for sometime now and you KEEP falling for it!

You go girls!

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The domain of Mr. Reality

The Women are at Fault by Matthias Matussek

A woman has a 1 in 3 chance of being raped? A 1 in 4 of being raped more than once? Pfeh... that sounds unrealistic to begin with. Are we to believe that this very small sliver of the male population which rapes women is capable of raping that many women? Of course no one takes into account the fact that there's a terrible plethora of false accusations. But politicians love this. They can use it as propaganda to try to gain control. I think someone who falsely accuses another of rape might as well be a rapist themself, because they tie up the resources that could be helping the REAL victims.

It's like George Orwell said in my favourite fiction book 1984(not an exact quote, but a paraphrase), "No one can say for sure whether the war is real or not. It doesn't really matter." It doesn't matter because they just need the fear that the war causes to keep control of the society. It doesn't matter if the cause of the fear is real or not, as long as the fear itself is real.

I wish more people would read 1984. It's becomming eerily reminiscent of modern day society. The only thing missing is a ridiculous and unjust contempt for men.

Evan AKA X-TRNL
Real Men Don't Take Abuse!