Posted on 07/23/2004 3:32:50 PM PDT by sinkspur
While her previous sexual history will not be admitted, the judge has just ruled that any post-KB-sexual activity WILL be admitted.
"Women never falsely accuse men of rape?"
Sure. Is she? I'm not on the jury.
And I would still like to believe in the Easter Bunny. The fact is that people lie under oath all the time. They've learned that no lightning bolt comes down from the sky. People are freed from death row regularly because it's learned someone lied on the stand. Someone merely testifying to something isn't enough, especially when you're talking about chucking someone in prison for 20 years. That's why we use physical evidence and exhibits and experts and all the rest. If it was enough for someone to just come into court, raise their right hand, then point to someone and say "they did it" for us to imprison or execute them, we'd be little better than Salem was during the witch trials.
They both lied.
The accuser told police that there was no sex between her and anyone else proximate to the rape.
We know now that that's not true, either.
They're both liars, so the determination will likely boil down to external circumstances and evidence.
Not good for the accuser.
LOL. Those pesky facts can derail a judgemental rant.
Yes indeed.
I "wish" I could stay here right now,
but I can't.
My Vicksburg escrow is closing right now!!!!!
I am HAPPY about that.
We're going to be neighbors real soon.
I believe it when its presented by the defense. The DA must believe there is something other than her word if its not worth much to colloborate it happened. I can't wait to see what it is. Otherwise without it, the case would have been dropped by now.
Ah, but there are other factors to consider in that decision. First, the DA was under pressure to bring charges once the sheriff's department jumped the gun and arrested Kobe. And once that happened, and all the attendant publicity started, the DA's office wanted to avoid looking like idiots by dropping the case, not to mention the pressure that they're receiving from feminist rape victim-advocacy groups, who are powerful in Colorado. Given their choice, it's unlikely the DA would have brought the charges at all. Since they are stuck, they're trying their best to play a bad hand, but that means they keep trying to exclude evidence from the trial and they keep losing.
"First, the DA was under pressure to bring charges once the sheriff's department jumped the gun and arrested Kobe."
I've worked for two prosecutorial agencies... never have they felt pressured to charge a case just because an arresting agency makes one...
Oh, thats wonderful and I know you're thrilled. :) I'm so looking forward to that. :)
Maybe you haven't, but it's not in doubt that the sheriff did an end run around the DA's office, going to a judge to get the arrest warrant instead of following the usual practice in that district of going through the DA. Here's the transcript of an interview the DA gave soon after the arrest...
"HURLBERT: Whatever was said about the sheriff's department and about the way the warrant was done, what's done is done. Nothing illegal was done. Nothing improper was done. And I want to look forward in this. I want to look forward and not backwards. And I support the sheriff, the sheriff's department, their investigators in this investigation"
Does that sound like someone who is happy about having this case, or someone trying to make the best of a situation not of their choosing?
"going to a judge to get the arrest warrant instead of following the usual practice in that district of going through the DA."
The prosecutor stated that the procedure was legal. The prosecutor still doesn't have to charge a case just because a judge signs an arrest warrant.
Are you obtuse? Yes, the DA says that it was legal, but you can almost hear the sigh in his voice in that quote. He says that there's nothing to be done, that he just wants to look forward not backward. Do you understand the concept of political pressure on a DA, or have you been sheltered from such real-world things? Yes, the DA can drop the case, and he very well still might, given the way the court's been deciding on all the evidence that he'd like to exclude. What will you say when he does?
The DA didn't have to charge the case in the first place. Are you even reading my posts?
I think your point is well taken. First, the ruling means there was "post assault" sexual history. Second, while many posters here will argue that merely because a woman has sex after a rape, does not mean she had consensual sex. That may be true, but for Kobe, the case is about reasonable doubt.
I don't think anyone here can argue that if evidence comes in that this woman had sex once or twice in the days immediately following the alleged assault, that most jurors will question the validity of her story on the rape. Right or wrong, the perception of most people is that if you are raped, you are a shattered soul and you would not be intimate, with anyone, immediately following such an event.
Perception is reality -- and depending on the facts, this case is over.
I have been reading your posts. Have you read mine? Have you actually considered the evidence? Do you understand the concept of pressure on a DA to bring charges, or, like your wish for the word of an accuser under oath being enough to convict, do you believe that all DA's everywhere are beyond such considerations? Question: Why did it take the DA two weeks to bring charges after the sheriff (who'd never investigated a rape case before) made the arrest?
"Have you actually considered the evidence?"
I learned after hearing the jury verdicts of OJ and the jury verdict of Rodney King, one can never really predict what the outcome will be.
"Do you understand the concept of pressure on a DA to bring charges, or, like your wish for the word of an accuser under oath being enough to convict, do you believe that all DA's everywhere are beyond such considerations?"
Having previously stated I have direct work history relating to such I do believe DA's everywhere are beyond such considerations.
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