What most people aren’t getting here is that the prosecution withholding any potentially exculpatory evidence is grounds for a mistrial in most US courts (though I certainly can’t speak for military courts). This was an easy case for the prosecutors and they completely fucked up by withholding this bit of information which would have had rather minimal bearing on the case.
I really fail to see how having been raped by other other people, too, would be in any way exculpatory for one of the rapists?
And on top of all that:
As a result, Stewart [the lawyer] said, Rosario was considering suing the Marines for false imprisonment. “He intends to avail himself of all potential civil remedies for his incarceration,” Stewart said.
Christ, what an asshole, he somehow appears to think that what he did was perfectly fine.
At least it appears that it is possible that he will face some consequences, even though his lawyer tries to downplay that:
It is also doubtful that Rosario will face federal charges, Stewart added. “It’s highly unlikely. There has been no indication that the United States Attorney would pursue anything,” she said.
Let’s hope that the US Attorney pursues the case. Is there a way to bring the case to their attention?
You might consider it clubbing, but ID checks for the dungeons I go to are strongly enforced. (The dungeons don’t fall under club rules since they do not serve alcohol, but verify that everyone entering is 1) over 18 and 2) either a registered member of the dungeon or a sponsored guest of a member.)
I don’t know of any of our local (covering Chicago - Milwaukee - Madison) such establishments that don’t check IDs every time someone shows up at the door. I’ve had times where the person checking IDs is a friend, we’ve been to each other’s homes, even had scenes together, and they still check my ID because that’s the procedure and it keeps us all safer!
It’s being used to place the blame on the victim – she’s obviously a slut, so it’s not rape. It’s an unfortunately disgustingly common tactic used to defend rapists.
Besides dropping the sexual assault charge for reasons, how does smuggling someone onto a military base for three days not result in a dishonorable?
I think their discipline problems are a lot bigger than this case.
That’s a good example of an edge case situation. You might also include porno theaters too - quite unlike the scenario here of a person meets a person and [insert metaphor] happens.
Withholding evidence tanks prosecutions. It doesn’t have to be clearly exculpatory, just potentially relevant to the defense. I guess the failure comes down to slut-shaming, internalized by the prosecutors and projected onto potential jurors.
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