Wednesday, March 01, 2006

unbelievable: alleged rape victim in contempt of court

Chicago Tribune Alleged rape victim threatened with jail

so. though she's been cross examined already and has testified she has no recollection of consenting to sex with this group of men, she's basically going to be thrown in jail if she doesn't watch a videotape of her own rape.

before you write me and say something really idiotic, ask yourself this: if she was your 20 year old daughter, would you want her to watch a tape of her rape?

if you're as pissed off about this dehumanization of a woman as i am, contact the men who should know better here:

call the judge: Judge Kerry M. Kennedy at 708-974-6759
call the presiding judge: Judge Anthony S. Montelione at 708-974-6288
call the chief judge: Judge Timothy C. Evans at 312-603-6000

[update: within minutes of me posting this, the Trib just posted an update - the judge backed down.]

[update2: scott lemieux has analysis here]

3 comments:

Dark Daughta said...

This was disgusting. I wrote a post about it pointing out that things really haven't changed in a few hundred years. One of my favourite artists, a woman was tortured by the law when she was raped and her father took it to court. They harmed her instead of the man who did it.

Delia Christina said...

it's clear the defense attorney was trying to get around illinois shield laws that say a victim's sexual past can't be used against them. whether or not the defense atty was within his rights is something for legal guys to argue.

my issue is with the judge. if there's a legal argument for the woman to watch the tape, why not do it in chambers since it's clearly so devastating to her? why force her to do it in open court?

Delia Christina said...

and he just got acquitted Friday.
nice.

because it's not rape when a girl's too drunk to give consent.