rape

A very strange story about a sexual assault case

Elizabeth — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:09:59 -0700

Amber Rhea sent me a link to a news story about a very bizarre ruling in a sexual assault case. It is a strange story and I'm wondering if it has been accurately reported. It sounds too awful to be true. If it is being accurately reported, it is beyond outrageous.

Here is what we can know based on the news story:

Melanie Ross alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Daniel Day at his Mercer University fraternity house in 2003. (According to the article, Day comes from a powerful Georgia family. His father is Burke Day, a State Rep and he is of the Days Inn Days.)

Melanie Ross is brought a civil suit against Day because of the assault.

A Bibb County judge ruled in the civil suit that the lacerations she had did not prove rape, and that she needed to provide a list of her sex partners because "only virgins can bring a case for sexual battery in civil court." In addition, she was ordered to pay $150,000 of Day's attorney fees.

a candle light vigil to remember the forgotten

tracya — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 11:48:47 -0800

i know this is terribly late as the event is tomorrow and there are very few people who will actually be in london on such short notice but i'm just trying to hold up my side of the pond!!

http://www.helenbamber.org/Events.html

The awful logic of "she was asking for it"

Elizabeth — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:18:36 -0800

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.

love in wartime

tracya — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 02:18:36 -0700

this looks like a really interesting exhibit that has opened in paris at the famous war museum.

Paris exhibit showcases love in wartime

By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 21, 12:04 PM ET
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Demand Justice for PFC LaVena Johnson

JanieBelle — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:55:56 -0700

By all accounts, LaVena Johnson was a happy, healthy, strong young woman when she joined the military as a supply specialist.

A few months later she was dead in Iraq, a victim of a non-combat gunshot wound to the head. As bad as the news of the death of their daughter, was the discovery of substantial evidence that she was raped, murdered, and her body twice set afire in a failed attempt to cover up the crimes. The United States Army is refusing to re-open the hitherto lackluster and barely cursory investigation into LaVena's death, and in the face of this mounting evidence, their refusal is beginning to reek of a cover-up.

Mistrial in the Tory Bowen/Pamir Safi rape case

Elizabeth — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:23:28 -0700

On my WordPress blog a few weeks ago I wrote about Tory Bowen, Pamir Safi and the ruling made by a judge that Bowen could not use the word "rape" in her testimony against Safi. Bowen alleges that Safi raped her while she was asleep, and his first trial ended in a hung jury. His second trial was just about to begin, but...

According to the AP, via the New York Times:

Filed at 10:00 a.m. ET

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Before a jury was even seated, a judge declared a mistrial in a sex-assault case where he had barred the words ”rape” and ”victim.”

Judge Jeffre Cheuvront of Lancaster County District Court said protests and other publicity surrounding the rape case against Pamir Safi, 33, would have made it too difficult for jurors to ignore everything they heard before the trial, which had been expected to begin next week.
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