UK Rape Trial Collapse

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UK Rape Trial Collapse

Postby Marcuse » Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:17 pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01 ... ther-case/

Today, a fourth rape trial in the UK has collapsed. Another young man who has been on bail for two years has been told that the Crown Prosecution Service will not enter any evidence against him, after a last minute disclosure of evidence has brought to light material which contradicts the prosecution case. This is the fourth time this has happened in four weeks. There's something decidedly fishy about the way these cases have been proceeding, with one even needing the defense team for one alleged rapist to seek out evidence that had not been provided by the police.

There seems to be a serious problem in the UK with rape trials in particular, and it's very disturbing that a number of cases have been delayed by around two years, with the defendant being accused but unable to prove that they didn't actually do what they're accused of, and often on bail or in jail during that time. Rape is a monstrous crime, and people who do it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but I have to wonder how much time is being wasted pursuing claims against people who have done nothing wrong, and how many actual rapists are not being caught because resources and time are being spent bringing innocent people to within days of a trial only for it to fall apart.
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Re: UK Rape Trial Collapse

Postby Absentia » Fri Jan 19, 2018 4:30 pm

Yeah, I would say there's more than a whiff of prosecutorial misconduct here. I don't know how things work in the UK but in this country that kind of thing can easily lead to disbarment.
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Re: UK Rape Trial Collapse

Postby Lindvaettr » Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:34 pm

I suspect that these cases are, at least in part, symptoms of our culture's current fixation with justice for rape victims.While this isn't a bad goal in and of itself (I hope I don't have to clarify that), one of the key problems being ignored is that rape is extremely difficult to prosecute. Our justice system ostensibly relies on presumption of innocent, and places the burden of proof on the shoulders of the prosecution. If a person is accused of murder, they don't need to prove they didn't do it, rather the prosecutors need to prove they did to it.

In the case of rape, this can be extremely difficult because there's often little to actual evidence that a rape occurred. Even if it's known that sexual activity between two parties occurred, there's often no concrete way to prove that the accused actually raped the accuser, instead of just having consensual sex. This, frequently combined with the reluctance of alleged victims to either come forward or to go through the entire legal process, means that many rapists are found not guilty and released, or don't go to trial at all.

While this certainly is a problem, we've so far taken a very bad approach to it, by adopting a sort of general rule of "Make it easier to prosecute rape", which means less (or no) evidence is required, victims are given significant leeway to remove themselves from the legal proceedings, etc. Given this, it's absolutely no surprise that innocent men are being held inappropriately on bail, or in prison, or even convicted. The justice system in the US, the UK, and other similar nations, is already flawed, but when you shift the burden of proof from the prosecution to the defense, but continue to otherwise operate as if everything is the same, you're bound to run into a lot more issues.

The biggest question we need to ask ourselves is, are we willing to incarcerate many more innocent people and (at least in the case of the US) permanently place them on extremely personally detrimental sex crimes lists, in order to successfully prosecute more rapes? At the moment, we've decided that it's worth it, though I suspect most people in support haven't fully considered the ramifications.
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Re: UK Rape Trial Collapse

Postby DamianaRaven » Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:47 pm

It sucks when there's no one to (accurately) blame for a bad situation like this. At least when there's someone to blame, you can always try making them cut that shit out.
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Re: UK Rape Trial Collapse

Postby Crimson847 » Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:33 am

DamianaRaven wrote:It sucks when there's no one to (accurately) blame for a bad situation like this. At least when there's someone to blame, you can always try making them cut that shit out.


https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2012
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Re: UK Rape Trial Collapse

Postby Windy » Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:56 pm

This is somehow Trump's fault. If people who weren't communists didn't exist this would never have happened.
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Re: UK Rape Trial Collapse

Postby sunglasses » Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:45 pm

Don't go off topic windy.
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Re: UK Rape Trial Collapse

Postby SandTea » Mon Jan 22, 2018 9:01 am

It may just be the it is "popular"and relevant now to speak out about these things...
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