Posted on 10/03/2018 6:49:00 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
A narrative has emerged over the past few years that women alleging sexual assault must be believed. That narrative took on heightened visibility in the wake of the sexual assault allegations of Christine Blasey Ford and the denials from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
It is imperative that all sexual assault allegations be taken seriously and investigated appropriately — something that has not always been the case.
But the Innocence Project, which was founded in 1992, has demonstrated through DNA testing that there are numerous cases of men sent to jail because they were wrongly convicted of sexual assault.
The organization boasts of 362 DNA exonerees to date, people who spent years, and in many cases decades, behind bars because they were convicted of a crime — murder, rape, assault, etc. — they did not commit.
Moreover, the organization’s efforts using DNA to clear innocent people have helped identify 158 real perpetrators, who were later “convicted of 150 additional violent crimes, including 80 sexual assaults,” according to the Innocence Project.
In news reports of those cases in which men were wrongly convicted of sexual assault, including rape, the victim identified the accused. Indeed the Innocence Project claims, “Mistaken eyewitness identifications contributed to approximately 70% of the more than 350 wrongful convictions in the United States overturned by post-conviction DNA evidence.”
Consider the kidnapping and rape conviction of VanDyke Perry and Gregory Counts. The victim, who knew both men, claimed they forced her into a car at knifepoint and raped her multiple times. The victim had semen in her underwear, which she claimed was theirs.
The men were convicted based solely on the victim’s eyewitness testimony. There was no physical evidence presented at the trial, according to news accounts.
Counts was released last year after 26 years in jail, thanks to the efforts of Innocence Project.
The release came after the organization provided DNA testing that revealed the semen belonged to the accuser’s boyfriend. After other elements of her story fell apart, the accuser finally admitted that she contrived the story.
Then there is the case of Malcolm Alexander of Louisiana, who was released last January. He spent nearly four decades behind bars, accused and convicted of a 1978 rape. Although he always maintained his innocence, the victim identified him — said she was 98 percent sure, according to news reports. Recent DNA tests proved otherwise.
The Ohio Innocence Project took on the case of Christopher Miller in 2015. He was convicted of rape in 2002 and imprisoned. Miller was arrested because he had the victim’s cell phone, which he said he exchanged the day before for some drugs. Although the victim identified him as one of two rapists, he maintained his innocence. DNA evidence eventually identified the two guilty men and Miller was released last June.
Or consider the case of Perry Lott of Oklahoma, who was released last July after more than 30 years behind bars for rape. The victim identified him, but DNA evidence excluded him from the scene.
These examples are not meant to question Ford’s testimony, which was compelling and heart-wrenching.
Rather, the examples challenge the narrative that a sex-assault victim is always telling the truth and cannot be mistaken about the culprit.
Misidentifying an alleged perpetrator of a sexual assault crime is rare — with the majority of those cases involving a stranger to the victim. Knowingly accusing someone falsely is even more rare, but it does happen.
That’s why even when a very credible victim raises a strong allegation, some type of evidence is needed. Mistakes happen. Just ask the hundreds of wrongly convicted people freed by the Innocence Project.
Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas. Follow him on Twitter @MerrillMatthews.
Women who falsely accuse men need to go to jail for life.
>>Women who falsely accuse men need to go to jail for life.<<
Instead, they are lotto winners.
“victims” cops, DAs, judges, witnesses who lie or withhold exculpatory info, should serve the sentence the defendant would have or is serving up to an including the death penalty. This more than anything would greatly improve the justice system
NOTHING should be believed without hard, factual evidence.
Show me pictures, video, verified voice tapes or any other solid evidence or all the claims in the world mean nothing.
Only that which can be measured matters.
Uh oh.
Once again liberal narratives collide.
Normally, this is Popcorn time.
But the damage these groups do is great.
When 2 elephants fight, the grass pays the price.
They always feel obliged to throw in that disclaimer.
Do they ever lie about non-rape?
'Over zealous' prosecutors (how many times have we heard that one?) who manufacture convictions should serve jail time, not just fired (which rarely happens).
Witnesses who lie (like 'hate crime hoaxes) should get the same punishment the innocent victim would have gotten.
I'm getting tired of these creeps going free because it's a 'teachable moment'.
the problem with not being benign dictatorship is you can’t get logic through congress.
Have you ever seen a movie or a play and were moved by the believability of the acting?
Actors can sound 'compelling'. So can liars.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp
Don’t you love the lamentations of our enemies? :-)
Very poorly thought out logic in this article. The majority of false rape allegations NEVER GO TO COURT, that is why there is such a low ratio of convictions/claims in sexual assault cases. The number of men who have been falsely convicted may be significant, but it represents a vanishingly small percentage of false allegations that actually not only went to trial, but resulted in a conviction. A better approach would be to present the numbers, for example “at X university there were 2,000 claims of sexual assault, which resulted in only 4 convictions”, so we see that the number of false allegations is actually very large indeed, not just a few hundred.
Femi-Nazi women are delusional and will never admit that the leftists have destroyed #MeToo and really were never interested in the movement in the first place for they are complicit in sexual assault cover up for liberals and politics always comes before justice for anyone.
I agree. I called Sen. Grassley today saying that he needs to procecute Ford right after getting Judge Kavanaugh's vote accomplished. (Freepers call your Senators!)
if these women commit perjury on this Supreme court pick, what are they going to do to the next 3 of Trump's picks?
They must publicly be tried and sent to prison and will the Dems find more to lie?
NIP IT IN THE BUD!
No victim is credible UNTIL there is physical evidence.
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