[Hemingway's Ghost]

I'm inclined to be sympathetic with this gent, but this piece is too heavily skewed in his favor, and I'd bet there's more to this story than appears here. If there were really no on-scene evidence of rape, would the cops who responded really be inclined to believe this woman's story? Would the prosecutor really be inclined to prosecute a case with little to no evidence that a crime has been committed?

[Mark17]

If there were really no on-scene evidence of rape, would the cops who responded really be inclined to believe this woman's story? Would the prosecutor really be inclined to prosecute a case with little to no evidence that a crime has been committed?

Yes, it is possible.

[sandbar]

A friend's boyfriend is in jail for child rape. His ex-girlfriends exhusband is suing for custody to avoid child support. One year after the fact, the child claimed that her boyfriend at the time (my friend's current boyfriend) raped her at the age of 8. Thus the mother was not a good mother by putting her in that situation, and the child needed to be sent to live with the father (and of course child support paid by the mother). After a medical examination, they found the child's hymen was still intact and no evidence or scarring of any kind. Furthermore, he passed a lie detector. But on the one time testimony of a (I believe) coerced child to a child pychologist, this man is serving 10 years. And getting beat up daily (as all child molesters should be) but I believe he is innocent. As the victim of sexual abuse as a child, I tend to have a sixth sense about these things.

[Hoodlum91]

BTW, I went to the links provided by jigsaw (post 9).

Per his appeals petition, there WAS evidence (his petition argues that he did not get adequate access to the evidence, including photographs and "toy items".) The most damning appears to be tape marks on the victims face.

There is definitely more to this case than the article implies.

[yoe]

Could race be involved?

[lawdude]

"Would the prosecutor really be inclined to prosecute a case with little to no evidence that a crime has been committed?"

Goodness YES. Think Rush Limbaugh, Tom Delay, Scooter Libby.

[spunkets]

"If there were really no on-scene evidence of rape, would the cops who responded really be inclined to believe this woman's story? Would the prosecutor really be inclined to prosecute a case with little to no evidence that a crime has been committed?"

Yes, because they are dirty poeple. Like the Ryan's of IL, or Randell of PA.

[LibertarianInExile]

Reading the denial of his habeas petition (http://www.geocities.com/tiluser/habeasrep.pdf), you see that the facts are not those that the convict puts forth but that he actually DID have at trial the photographs that were 'recently discovered,' and did make numerous appeals through the system in Michigan which were denied--though the article above says he did not. This seems a case of crying wolf, freepatriot32. I don't love John Engler, but if he denied clemency, I've got one more reason to be suspicious of the above description of the facts.

He-said-she-said sucks, but if you're convicted on that basis, you're STILL convicted.