{"id":138764,"date":"2019-05-14T00:05:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T06:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138764"},"modified":"2019-05-14T00:05:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T06:05:50","slug":"victimizing-the-sexual-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/05\/14\/victimizing-the-sexual-victims.html","title":{"rendered":"Victimizing the sexual victims"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There is a a massive difference between an accusation that is a lie and an accusation that is not sufficiently proven, or that a DA chooses not to pursue. This bill ignores that difference. What do you think will be the result? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LBqDyQgX1n\">https:\/\/t.co\/LBqDyQgX1n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Three_Star_Dave\/status\/1127811019110092801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 13, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is a a massive difference between an accusation that is a lie and an accusation that is not sufficiently proven, or that a DA chooses not to pursue. This bill ignores that difference. What do you think will be the result?<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/t.co\/LBqDyQgX1n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Alabama is looking at a law to make it a felony to\u00a0falsely accuse someone of a sexual crime.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/alisondb.legislature.state.al.us\/ALISON\/SearchableInstruments\/2019RS\/PrintFiles\/HB544-int.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The bill<\/a>, introduced by Rep. Dickie Drake, R-Leeds, would make falsely reporting a sex crime a Class C felony and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. If the accused is found not guilty, the accuser would be responsible for paying the accused person\u2019s legal expenses.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Sexual assault and molestation are already known to be underreported, due to skepticism and calling into question motives to make the accusation and the fact that such cases often get reduced to a they-said-they-said. Given that our criminal justice system (not unwisely) requires criminal guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, even when someone is brave enough to make a true accusation, it may not be provable in court.<\/p>\n<p>This particular law turns all of that on its head. If your accusation doesn&#8217;t end up being sustained before a jury, or if the DA decides not to pursue the case (i.e., where &#8220;allegations are proven to be false&#8221;), you are instead then presumed guilty of filing a false charge and are now on the hook for the defendant&#8217;s legal costs and, potentially, jail time yourself.<\/p>\n<p>The result? One more reason for rape and molestation victims to stay silent, unless they can be <em>absolutely certain<\/em> that a DA or jury will agree with their accusations.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody wants to encourage false accusations &#8230; but this is a law that will demonstrably discourage <em>true<\/em> accusations. Is that what we really want?<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you want to know more?\u00a0<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/politics\/2019\/05\/alabama-bill-would-criminalize-false-rape-accusations.html\">Alabama bill would criminalize false rape accusations &#8211; al.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the only accusations allowed are those that are guaranteed to result in a conviction, then who will dare accuse?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[78,715],"tags":[723],"class_list":["post-138764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tweets","category-crime-punishment","tag-nt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32315,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/24\/abortion-as-felony-evidence-tampering.html","url_meta":{"origin":138764,"position":0},"title":"Abortion as felony evidence-tampering","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Jan-13 2:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In a sane world, this would be a reasonable, even important piece of legislation, New Mexico HB 206, creating a felony penalty for tampering with evidence in a rape or incest case:'Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31114,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/02\/because-joe-miklosi-loves-murderers-especially-yours.html","url_meta":{"origin":138764,"position":1},"title":"&#8220;Because Joe Miklosi LOVES MURDERERS \u2026 especially YOURS!&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-Nov-12 7:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing the pretty consistent peppering of flyers (and, apparently, broadcast ads, though I don't listen\/watch those) from a worried Mike Coffman against his Democratic challenger Joe Miklosi, we get a doozy here, as a follow-up to previous ad campaigns: JOE MIKLOSI VOTED AGAINST KATIE'S LAW. Sometimes, a single strand of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2012&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2012","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2012"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5360,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/01\/failure_to_comm.html","url_meta":{"origin":138764,"position":2},"title":"Failure to communicate","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Apr-04 6:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Word just in that the Old South continues to function like ... well, the Old South, as a woman faces a \"crime against nature\" felony for receiving oral sex. A...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;LGBTQ &amp;c&quot;","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &amp;c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16067,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/10\/22\/congress-passes-hate-crime-protection-for-gays.html","url_meta":{"origin":138764,"position":3},"title":"Congress passes hate crime protection for gays","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Oct-09 4:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And you'd think the sky is falling. Physical attacks on people based on their sexual orientation will join the list of federal hate crimes in a major expansion of the civil rights-era law Congress approved Thursday and sent to President Barack Obama. A priority of the late Sen. Edward M.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;LGBTQ &amp;c&quot;","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &amp;c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8757,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/23\/south_carolina.html","url_meta":{"origin":138764,"position":4},"title":"South Carolina boldly tackles its biggest problem &#8230;","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 23-Apr-06 9:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... the sale of sex toys. The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ZT &amp; PC&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ZT &amp; PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3207,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/25\/how_just.html","url_meta":{"origin":138764,"position":5},"title":"How &#8230; just","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 25-Jul-02 9:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"A judge shows tremendous good judgement (not to matter a sense of humor) in dealing with a defamation suit: MCA [sued Mattel] for defamation [because a Mattel representative had, in...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics &amp; Law&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics &amp; Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138764"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138775,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138764\/revisions\/138775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}