Thursday, March 2, 2006

Missbrenner Rape Trial

I understand how hard it must be for this girl to watch a tape of herself having sex with a couple of guys when she doesn't even remember it.

But it begs the question: When are you no longer responsible for your actions? How drunk do you have to be to be able to say, afterwards, "Oh I didn't want that to happen" and not be held liable for it?

I've done plenty of stupid things when I've been drunk. Most of them I don't remember. Does that mean I shouldn't have to man up to the consequences? No.

I beat on an old woman's door in the middle of the night and puked on her porch. She got scared, called the cops, and they took me away. Shouldn't I have to serve my punishment (community service)? Of course I should.

Just because we don't remember something doesn't mean we aren't responsible. We are responsible, however, for how drunk we get. On that I think we can all agree.

And this case is different.

Three guys had sex with her. The defense and the prosecution both claim the tape supports their side. We can't know unless we see the tape. Was she not moving?

If she wasn't, it's rape.

Was she just really drunk?

I'm trying to put myself in the guys' shoes here. They were drunk too. How do you know, as a guy, if the girl won't remember what's happening? There is no way of knowing this.

It's a judgment call, and judgments are known evaporate with alcohol in the system.


It's horrible to have something like that happen to you when you were so drunk you don't remember. It is. But don't get that drunk then. At some point you have to take responsibility. "I got way too drunk." "I don't remember."

I'm not saying that these guys in this case are or aren't guilty. I don't know. But no one does.

All I'm saying is that, if the best the prosecution can do is say "She can't remember," then there is plenty or reasonable doubt left.

Maybe the answer is in the tape, maybe it isn't. But it's the only real account of what happened that night. Everyone else was drunk or has an ulterior motive now.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home