Originally published at: A 15-year-old girl killed a 37-year-old man who raped her. Now she must pay $150,000 to the family of her "victim" | Boing Boing
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Um…
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What the fuck! Presumably she didn’t fucking choose to be sex trafficked for fuck’s sake…
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I thought most news outlets had a policy of not naming minors who are victims of crimes like rape and sex trafficking. Yeah, it’s probably all public record, but that doesn’t mean we need the media amplifying it.
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Well, she was Black, and poor, so she must have made bad choices somewhere! Otherwise she would have been a rich white girl that the media would have wrapped in silk and supported. Why should one stabbing ruin the life of a person with so much potential?
/s
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I wonder if there’s a Go Fund Me or something where people can help her pay that bill (and then some).
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Yeah she should have just put up with her captivity like a decent christian white girl such as Elizabeth Smart did.
/s of course. WTF.
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One of the most outrageous aspects of this case isn’t necessarily the requirement to pay $150k, it’s that the system basically forced her to plead guilty to manslaughter in the first place. Very few defendants (let alone a trafficked minor) have the opportunity or resources to go to trial with a decent defense lawyer, so plea deals are the only realistic option for most people, even when they’re innocent (or justified) of what they’re being accused of.
Edit to add: I just looked it up, and per a 2018 report in the Des Moines Register just 1.2% of felony cases in Iowa are decided by a jury trial, with the vast majority of defendants taking plea deals. The system is truly set up to railroad defendants rather than deliberate the facts.
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It should have said “2020”
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Yeah I’m sure he was a real father-of-the-year candidate, that guy.
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Every adult in this poor girl’s life has failed her, up to and including those involved in this trial. I really hope she is able to find someone with real empathy who can give her the support she really needs to overcome this tragedy.
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Even better would be to pay for a good attorney to sue the dead guy’s estate in civil court for a few million dollars for her emotional trauma.
Every last bit of this young woman’s story and treatment by the state is disgusting.
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I am a woman, and I’ve been a victim of violent crime more than once in my life. Clearly I didn’t learn my lesson, and thus should be thrown in prison.
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“She also needs to be taught accountability so she does not stumble back into the life that led to her involvement in sex trafficking”
In 2020, Lewis was sleeping in a hallway after fleeing an abusive home when a man took her in and trafficked her to others for sex. She told the court one of them was Brooks, 37, and that he had raped her many times.
So I assume they have an even harsher punishment for the man who raped and trafficked her, so that he “learns accountability” and “does not stumble back into that life”.
What? They didn’t? Shocking. 
Justice my ass.
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Time for a personal story.
Many years ago, my cousin married a violent man. He was abusive to her and to her family. We all have stories about the felonies he committed against us. It took her far too long to divorce him, because she was the first on either side of her family to ‘fail’ like that.
Not long after, a man caught him in the act and killed him to protect his wife from the violence.
And shortly after that, I learned at a friend’s party that his dad was a lawyer and was representing the extended family of this horrible man in a civil suit, for damages just like this poor young woman is now being required to pay. I told him to his face that no one in my family would speak as a character witness on the dead man’s behalf, and in fact I’d be happy to take the husband and wife out to dinner to thank him for protecting the community.
Fast forward a few years. I go with my dad to an event, and there is the lawyer. He recognizes me, and says (right in front of my dad): “So, do you still hate all men?” I’ve never seen my dad so startled.
Violence against women is normal and manly. Standing up to it, whether with words or weapons, especially while female, is man-hating. Welcome to the legal justice system!
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I’m the kind of evil muthafucka who would have spat right back;
“Nope, just your dead son.”
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Oh no, this was the lawyer, who was the father of a friend.
He was representing the dead man’s parents/siblings, who were suing the man who killed him (in defense of his wife) for ‘wrongful death’.
So this was just legal work to him, not personal.
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