I
remember asking one of my co-workers back in 2009 the question: If you
were ever a part of a jury in two trials against men that have committed
the same type of crime, with one man being wealthy, having grown up in a
privileged household, and the other being poor, struggling for daily
survival in the gutter, whom would you presume innocent or guilty of the
crime at the onset of the trial? Whom would you enact stricter
punishment on at the end?
Surprisingly,
my coworker answered: I would think the rich man to be guilty, because
depending on the crime, what reason would a well off individual have to
commit any crime at all, petty or grand?
Unfortunately,
many of my fellow liberals always seem to assume the same thing when it
comes to high profile cases, like the most recent one involving
Dominique Strauss Kahn and rape charges brought against him by a hotel
maid.
At
the very beginning of his trial, fellow liberals and lefties alike were
chanting: stop blaming the victims, Straussie go to jail, wearing
provocative clothing does not entail an automatic yes to sexual
advances; DSK is a serial rapist etc.
The
trend of saying things like: Oh she deserved to be raped! Just look at
the way she dresses, is a deplorable trend. The attitude of individuals
proclaiming this view has reached a new low. However, involving DSK, no
one, so far as I’m aware, has made the claim that the victim provoked
Mr. Kahn into raping her.
Of
course all of these calls to find DSK guilty of the crime, presuming
the man guilty at the onset of the trial, fly right out the window in
the face of hard evidence.
Still,
rape is not to be taken lightly and the presumption of innocence must
still be given to the accused until all of the evidence is presented and
then a judgment made. Are these not the fundamentals of justice?
Fortunately,
the charges laid by the Guinean hotel-maid Nafissatou Diallo were
dropped by a New York judge on the recommendation of Manhattan District
Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. The District Attorney cited issues with the
credibility of Ms. Nafissatou’s testimony and evidence.
There
is only the matter of Ms. Diallo’s civil suit that needs to be dealt
with. Whether new and more incriminating evidence surfaces in the civil
suit remains to be seen, but if not then that case will also surely
follow suit in being dropped.
However,
Mr. Kahn is not out of the woods yet since suspicion lingers and he is
still to face similar lawsuits in his home country, France.
Whether these cases are indeed cases involving rape or just money-grabbing remain to be seen.
I
am no expert, but I think the only thing worse than a criminal getting
away unpunished and the victim not receiving justice, is condemning a
man or woman, rich or poor, for a crime he or she did not commit.
