I guess I was going by the old fashioned P in V definition of rape. I don't think that occurred here because he did not want to leave his DNA on the victim. Some posters think that if the Swedes hadn't have come along when they did that he would have progressed to P in V penetration thus upping the severity of his crime and probably the amount of time he received from the judge. What he did to this young woman was awful but it could have been even worse. |
Um that is probably because what happened at the party is irrelevant to what later happened behind the dumpster, to which they were NOT witnesses. If I see you driving your car just fine at 8 pm I can't testify you weren't impaired when you drive drunk and hit someone at 12 am. |
And I just looked at what he was actually convicted of: 6 charges, 3 of them felony. He was convicted of Assault with intent to rape. So it does not sound as though he was convicted of rape. He was convicted of felony sexual assault. |
Until someone is under oath, it's gossip, rumors and hearsay. It's why hearsay rules exist for evidence. All you have is what he testified to. She didn't remember. You are taking the word of a rapist. |
If these two were seen making out at a party and she was seen willingly leaving with him it would simply mean that at some point she was engaging in consensual sexual activity with this guy. If she had later woke up disheveled and alone behind a dumpster but with no memory of how she wound up there and she later found out from friends that she had been making out with a guy and had left the party with him.... What would she assume had happened to herself? |
That is some really desperate hair splitting. |
Well, let's see. The people who have killed people while drunk driving aren't given leniency because they're so drunk they didn't know what they were doing. Because they were too drunk, right. I mean, I don't think this guy was planning to go out and rape someone just like I don't think most drunk drivers are planning to go out and kill innocent people with a car. But it doesn't matter. You do the crime, you pay the price. |
Exactly! |
Your example further supports that alcohol can't be ignored as a contributor to criminal acts. |
Sadly I think there was a long time where they didn't consider it murder though - they considered it manslaughter. So even with drunk driving, there has had to be a paradigm shift in people's thinking. |
It isn't murder when you kill someone drunk driving because a charge of murder has to be justified by proving premeditation with intent to kill. It's a legal distinction. Manslaughter is when your actions cause a death; murder is when you plan and premeditate to kill someone. Words mean things. |
Let's hope they never see this side of him... since he's only going to jail for 6 months, and since he doesn't think he actually did anything wrong, he could easily get out and do this all over again. Because, you know, 'hook up culture' and 'poor little drunk boys.' Ugh. |
You can roll your eyes into the back of your head if you want. It doesn't change the fact that far too many high school and college-aged students, as well as young adults, are engaging in highly risky behavior. Getting extremely drunk and counting on others to look out for you is incredibly unsafe. The PP related her experiences of being drunk and being with other people who were drunk but fortunately no one took advantage of her. What's wrong with being sober and aware? Too many people commenting here want to be free to do whatever they want and hope that others will be responsible. |
O.k....the guy was not convicted of rape. He was convicted of sexual assault with the intent to rape. Calling him a "rapist" would be the same thing as calling an attempted murderer a murderer. Yeah, he may have intended to do worse damage than he did but he didn't actually do it. I think it's important to stick to the facts and not "convict" him of things that he wasn't actually convicted of. What he did was terrible enough - the facts speak for themselves. There is no indication that the victim did not go willingly with this guy - he did not kidnap her, he did not force her to leave with him. There is an indication that this guy had come on to multiple women at this party, the victim's sister included - he did not try to drag them out of the party, he took their "no's" for an answer and tried to find a woman that was interested. I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that he also came on to the victim and the victim left the party with him willingly to fool around with him. At some point, this victim passed out and this young man continued to sexually engage with her passed out body - an obvious, cut and dry sexual assault. The Swedes came along and saw him doing it, tackled him and called the police. |
Words aside - I know there has been a shift historically in how people feel about and prosecute drunk drivers. Courtesy of MADD. |