He is still guilty of forcible rape in my opinion. The fact that his victim appears to be a petty criminal who may have attempted to arrange a clumsy blackmail does not exonerate him.
The French legal system, based upon Napoleonic code, does not include a presumption of innocence. Perhaps we should have tried Mr Strauss-Khan under that standard.
Or perhaps not. In practice the French do not appear to believe that rape is a crime when it is committed by the rich and powerful.
Rule of Law is a great idea. Maybe we should actually try it some day. In the mean time it is extremely unwise to trust the political elites of any country.
I don’t want to exonerate him, I just didn’t like the fact that we tried him in the press without knowing all the facts and that the prosecutor allowed this to happen.
We can’t really be sure that it was forceable rape, not after the woman called her boyfriend in prison and asked him what to do next, to maximize the situation.
It may actually be a very good thing for the world that Strauss-Kahn’s political career took such a hit, but it is a bad thing for the world that the US rule of law took this kind of hit.