Lack of campus due process could one day help an actual rapist

Submitted by Mastodon on Thu, 2015-08-20 23:03

Article here. Excerpt:

'Due process for college students has been in the news lately, as judge after judge makes favorable rulings for students accused of sexual assault.

Naturally, those outraged over the supposed epidemic of campus sexual assault claim that due process is an impediment to justice. An accusation is as good as guilt, some activists seemingly believe.

But accused students who feel they have been wrongly vilified are fighting back, by suing the universities that expelled them and treated them as guilty from the start. They're claiming a lack of due process protections.

For instance, most colleges and universities don't allow the accused or accuser to have legal representation (some schools allow a lawyer to sit in but not speak), many schools don't even provide students with an explanation of the charges against them, or allow the accused to cross-examine his accuser. No testimony in campus courts is given under oath, yet the transcripts and evidence can be turned over to police afterward.'

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Comments

It is the best legal policy for all of society. We should not be thinking about whether it is good for individuals like the accusers, the accused, the guilty or the innocent. Instead, we should recognize that if due process gets erased for one legal situation, who's to say the crazys wont come after another one. And what if lack of due process destroys an innocent person's education and subsequent career, then society misses out on a productive member, yet has a false accuser among them.

And then we also have the situation the article pointed out where accused are winning 'lack of due process' cases which means a real rapist could be denied due process and found guilty in campus proceedings, but then later sue the school for lack of due process, win, and have verdict overturned. Then society has a real rapist among them. So it is best to allow due process from the very beginning.

We need to insist on fair legal policies to maintain a healthy society.

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Submitted by Kris on Fri, 2015-08-21 04:27