DNA Test Confirms Rape Conviction

AP ^ | May 16, 2002 | Theo Emery

[mondonico]

This article does a great job of showing what idiots the hug-a-rapist media have become.

[coloradan]

Kinda makes you wonder how worldview-shattering it would be for these people to learn the truth about a different rapist, x42.

[07055]

Why people believe they can judge a person's guilt or innocence based on his wit and charm always baffles me.

Of course, I was also baffled that X42's supposed wit and charm mesmerized so many supposedly intelligent people for so long.

[1rudeboy]

Don't be so quick to assume that they were so easily "charmed." Look at the subtext behind the story. "Innocent" "black" man "unjustly" convicted by "white" jury of "sex" crime.

In my opinion, these folks were "charmed" before they ever met the rapist.

[tracer]

Sez' LaGuer....

[mondonico]

To me, the most damning statement is the one by the reporter who, although acknowledging the evidence as "damning," says "I still like the guy, and I will continue to accept his phone calls."

Does this reporter's girfriend/wife know about her boyfriend/husband's affection for rapists? Can you imagine having your daughter date/marry this reporter?

[tracer]

Oops. Should be "C'est LaGuer".....

[07055]

See Comment #4 for the reason why this guy is still charmed.

[trad_anglican]

LaGuer's attorney, David M. Siegel, said "it's obviously a fact that makes the case a bit more complicated."

Understatement of the year.

I'm shocked! just shocked that so many obviously intelligent people could have been taken in by this con. Just when you thought the left couldn't get any sillier, something like this comes along to make your day.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

The number of absolute morons as a percentage of the population must surely be higher in Massachusetts than anywhere else!

I'll be there this weekend (I haven't been back to the East Coast in over ten years, just because I can't stand so many of the liberal dirtballs who live there) and I'll bring back a report on average IQ's vs. liberals OPINIONS of what their IQ's are! (The IQ test is simple- ask them if we should "FREE Mumia" or "FRY Mumia").

(GOP Gal, if you see this, you are an exception. Wish there were more!)

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Never mind the defenders; there have been some innocent people freed by DNA tests. More interesting is the mindset of the rapist -- a mind set shared with at least some criminals. He was so sure of his ability to convince people of his innocence that he thought he could convince a DNA test. Absolutely no thought of negative consequences.

[Dan(9698)]

The reporter may take his phone calls, but would he invite him for a sleep over with his girlfriend?

[07055]

The reporter may take his phone calls, but would he invite him for a sleep over with his girlfriend?

Is he a liberal? Is so, then yes.

After all, the guy *told* him he was innocent. Who are you going to believe, him or your lying DNA test?

[lsee]

police planted the evidence

They happened to have a vial of his bodily fluids in a secret vault somewhere.

[Bonaparte]

"...that he thought he could convince a DNA test."

He knew he couldn't do that. His strategy was just what he wound up doing -- accusing the police of planting his DNA to get a positive test result. Not a bad idea at all, considering how eager the left is to find (or create) a "victim of racism." Look how easily OJ Simpson's lawyers put the police on trial in the media.

[fella]

Golly! Gee! A bunch of the leftist elite have been flim-flamed and they're all "agast". After clinton you would have thought that they had learned their lesson. Instead they "still like the guy and will still accept his calls". They must be from the, "some of the people you can fool all the time", group.

[Bonaparte]

"...some of the people you can fool all the time, group."

That's exactly it.

From the website of Barry Scheck himself --

"Not every prisoner is exonerated by post-conviction DNA testing. Benjamin LaGuer, convicted in Massachusetts in 1984 of the rape of his neighbor, has long claimed that he was the victim of mistaken identity. Last year, a judge granted his application for post-conviction DNA testing. The analysis was done by Dr. Edward Blake at his lab and concluded on March 22, 2002. The findings affirm the validity of the 1984 conviction, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Mar 23, 2002). Blake said that of the 15 to 20 post-conviction DNA cases a year that his lab handles, the results further implicate about 60 percent of the convicted defendants. LaGuer now claims that the victim was not raped and that his sperm was secretly harvested from underwear investigators stole from his apartment. Blake said such a scenario was highly unlikely. "When somebody presents a hypothesis, then the hypothesis begs a question -- what is necessary for that hypothesis to be true? What is necessary was a broad conspiracy that foresaw by decades the development of DNA testing. That is only possible at the fringes of one's imagination." Jabari Issa Mandela is serving a life sentence in Tennessee for a rape committed 20 years ago. Last year, his application for post-conviction DNA testing was granted. Laboratory Corp. of America conducted the recently concluded tests. The Tennessean (Mar 11, 2002) revealed that the lab report states that the odds were 8 million-to-1 against anyone else having committed the rape."

A DNA forensics lab finds that 60% of the post-conviction tests it performs actually confirm guilt and yet all these leftist journalists, academics, and clergy are "surprised" that LaGuer turns out to be a typical case. This has got to tell us how little they know of the subject they are so passionate about. After LaGuer had spent 8 hours raping, robbing and brutally beating his 59-year-old next-door neighbor, one of the things she told police was that she had put scratches in his back with her fingernails during the crime. When LaGuer was picked up, he had fresh scratches on his back consistent with this report. He told police that he had gotten them from a nail in a bar he was at. Then he later changed his story and said he had gotten them from a wooden bench a month before the attack occured. When asked why his wounds were still fresh, he said he picked at the scabs a lot. This man is nowhere near as "intelligent" as his defenders make him out to be. The crowning irony is that his refusal to admit his guilt continues to make him ineligible for parole 20 years after his offense. To get out of prison, he will have to admit that he's been a liar all along and has abused the judicial process -- which in turn looks bad to the parole board. And when supporters like Prof Leslie Epstein and Nation of Islam "minister" Don Muhammed continue to encourage LaGuer in his denials, they are actually helping to ensure that he will serve out his entire life sentence. If he'd simply admitted the obvious, he would probably already have been released. Funny, how these things work out, isn't it? But none of this will stop fools like William Styron, John Silber, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Walters and this whole liberal cast of thousands from repeating their performance over and over and over and over...

[Bonaparte]

Here's a 1984 oil painting by artist Kay Wood, who closely followed this case from the time LaGuer was arrested. It's based on testimony from his trial and is titled, "She Asked For It, #11" --

[MarineDad]

Noam Chomsky fell for this?!?!? Knock me over with a feather...

[NYCVirago]

Thanks for that additional information and analysis of this case. As for that 60% figure, that doesn't mean that 40% are cleared, correct? As some of the DNA cases may be inconclusive, I'm curious as to what the real percentage is of innocent people cleared by DNA evidence is. (It must be small, or the libs would be trumpeting the number.)