injustice

You are sitting in a car with your exboyfriend. You want some pictures back. You are planning to marry someone else. Suddenly your car is attacked, you and your ex are both kidnapped, and both raped.

When your case goes before a judge you are punished, along with your attackers. You are sentenced to 90 lashes for being out alone with a man who is not a member of your family. Your attackers are sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 months to 5 years and to 800 to 1,000 lashes.

You appeal.

On appeal their sentences are increased but so is yours. Now you are sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail.

Now, it seems, you are being punished for appealing in addition to being punished for talking to your exboyfriend.

This is the case of a woman in Saudi Arabia, one of our "allies" and the only good thing to report is that it has, according to the New York Times, "provoked a rare public debate about the treatment of women" in that country.

Even lawyers have spoken out, some on television, objecting to the sentence and pointing to other cases where women were not treated so harshly.

There's been a lot of interest in the Genarlow Wilson case on my wordpress blog. I wonder if we can start a thread here where people can discuss their questions, frustrations, and perhaps even other similar cases (if we know of any).

I, for one, am especially frustrated right now by the apparent poor judgement by the judge who revised Wilson's sentence yesterday. The question before him was a habeas corpos question, and that wouldn't seem to allow for a revision of the sentence but only for a vacating of the sentence. Why would a judge who apparently believed that tremendous injustice had been done make such lame decision? Why didn't he just toss out the original sentence altogether as unconstitutionally cruel and unusual? Are there lawyers (or even judges!)who can speculate on this? Anyone? 

Here are some links to a couple of blog posts on the recent development. 

My post on Sexinthepublicsquare.wordpress.com 

JanieBelle on UDOJ