ACTA Calls for Due Process: Learning from the UVA Scandal

Article here. Excerpt starts on p. 3:

'ACTA has consistently warned that when a college must deal with grave and emotionally charged issues— and surely sexual assault is such an is- sue—it is due process and the principle of innocence until guilt is established that alone can ensure justice. Many on cam- pus and in political leadership feel better by crying for swift, stern punishments, but rapid, bungled investigations often mean that the guilty walk free and the innocent are punished. Unless we want to see vigilante-style justice, we need to rely on the legal system to deal with crime. The recent events at University of Virginia offer a case in point.

Shortly after Rolling Stone magazine published “A Rape on Campus: A Bru- tal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA,” ACTA issued the statement, “Col- leges have the responsibility of providing a safe atmosphere, but the investigation and prosecution of grave criminal activity can only be done effectively by the police and the courts.” UVA’s ill-considered re- sponse, however, stands as an example of what happens when a university chooses a different path.

As is now notorious, the story told in Rolling Stone quickly came apart and the article became emblematic of something else: the incontrovertible reality of false accusations, the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of trial by the media, and the failure of college leadership.'