I am always amazed how whenever there is a rape case, it's treated as a given that women lie about sex. Perhaps I'm imagining things, but it seems to me that in almost every rape case the defense will somehow bring up that the woman willingly had sex with the man and then lied to A.) extort money or something else from him or B.) protect her image of purity and/or chastity. Couldn't it just be that she's telling the truth and that the guy is just guilty?
It's always good to see defense attorneys keeping it classy, like with this quote:
"Levine said the women who testified against Alexander "invited what happened" and then made up stories so they could sue Alexander after his criminal case."
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That's because the alleged rapist gets a lawyer too, and that's the best any lawyer can come up with for a defense. In fact, it's the only defense, especially if the defendant actually committed the crime. I suppose they could try to tactic that the defendant was never even there at the time of the incident, but that probably wouldn't work very well if the guy's semen was found in the victim.
"In fact, it's the only defense, especially if the defendant actually committed the crime."
Unfortunately these types of tactics usually have the effect of swaying the jury to sympathize with the rapist and blame the victim for her own rape. And so rarely do victims win these cases because of these smears.
Well, swaying the jury to sympathize with the defendant is kind of the job of the defense lawyer. I'm not saying it's good, it's just his/her job. Perhaps we should be raising awareness on issues of rape so all the potential jurors out there will be less likely to be swayed by the tired, ridiculous arguments of rape defense lawyers.
Well, the trouble is, everyone lies about sex, all the time. There is a real stigma about having sex today.
Now, it's unlikely a woman would drag a man to court and pay huge legal fees just to hide an extramarital liasion she wasn't proud of, so of course in court the argument is useless. But the problem is, jurors don't sit there and logically think, "well, why would she go to all this trouble and cost herself so much money to protect her reputation or MAYBE get some cash out of him," they just know that people lie about sex all the time, and it's easy for a lawyer to point that out and cast suspicions in their mind.