Nah. It’s not an either / or, though I’m sure you’d like it to be. You cannot separate the too; they are tied together. Moreover, it seems to me that generalizations about which is worse (being raped or falsely being accused of rape) are fraught with danger. Being raped is a horrible crime and an unimaginable…

My apologies. I did misread what you wrote.

5.4 years sounds about right. And that does encompass, I assume, all rape cases. Not all of them as you know are created equally. Some are more egregious than others. Some victims (in addition to the life-long scars) are beaten so badly they barely survive or don’t survive. (The latter usually are prosecuted as…

Really? I never knew that To Kill a Mockingbird was fictional. Thanks. In any event, do you think Harper Lee just pulled everything out of thin air? Or do you think it was based on her life experiences growing up in the South and she was using the novel to send a message about racial prejudice? It deals with the…

How appropriate. You are doubting my claim that I am a lawyer. I know how to read quite well, but I will grant you that your comments are not the model of clarity that I like to see. What did I misread?

My argument is profoundly ridiculous? Gosh, you undermine your own argument. You try and claim there is a distinction between being falsely accused and wrongly convicted, yet you concede “they are related, sure” and acknowledge that “it sucks in both cases.” So why is it so “profoundly ridiculous”? If you are falsely…

Did I revise your comment? Uhhh, NO. I guess that question is apropos since this thread does concern false accusations. But no I did not revise your comment.

Nonsense. “Actual” rapists get charged and convicted all the time. Perhaps you might want to dust off To Kill a Mockingbird or read up on the Scottsboro Boys or Google the name Lawrence McKinney. And by far most acquittals in rape cases are in the “he said / she said” cases, where the credibility of a single witness…

C’mon. That’s a strawman argument. It’s a more difficult question when a crime other than murder is your hypothetical. Rape is traumatic and leaves lasting scars. But the person lives. Someone falsely convicted of rape will spend years in prison, during which time he is likely to feel first hand what it’s like to be…

Unless you wind up in prison because of it. And you seem intelligent enough to know that incarceration is not the only “punishment” that awaits a convicted rapist in prison.

Tell that to the Scottsboro Boys or to Harper Lee. Tell that to Lawrence McKinney, who spent 31 years, 9 months in prison for rape, before being exonerated.

Cases with DNA pretty much are slam dunk guilty verdicts. The tough cases are the “he said / she said” date rape or acquaintance rape cases. Those turn on whose testimony the jury decides to credit. Alcohol is frequently involved, which affects memory and perception. And I disagree that DAs a very picky. They…

It really depends on the sort of rape. In stranger rapes cases, there usually is forensic evidence (such as DNA) to support an eyewitness ID. Those cases rarely go to trial because the defendant knows he will get convicted. Instead, he pleads guilty to the best deal his attorney can work out. By far, the tougher cases…

Someone falsely convicted of rape often suffers both: being convicted of a crime the person did not commit AND getting sodomized in prison. I’m sure you’ve seen Shawshank Redemption. Although fiction, Stephen King was on solid ground (and actually minimized it) in describing “the Sisters.”

It’s not in “scare quotes.” I did because a person who accuses another of rape is not a “victim” unless and until there is a conviction. Judges will not hesitate (even without an objection) from stopping prosecutors from referring to her as a victim because it presupposes guilt, which is what the trial is about. I’m…

Rarely are rape victims portrayed as liars. See my other comments for the reason.

Listen Breaker, I was a prosecutor for a quarter century and tried a whole lot of rape cases of all varieties—stranger rapes, date rapes, child molestation. So, I know a thing or two and I can say with a great deal of certainty that you are wrong. Rape accusers are called liars—from time to time. Nowhere near “every…

I’m sure Mr.McKinney will find your words (2 or 3 times a day) comforting. That “dude” spent the better part of his life in prison for a rape he did not commit. He was exonerated by DNA evidence. Please contact him and offer your explanation that being falsely accused of a crime is better than being the victim of…

You will rarely see a judge permit the prosecution to call a rape victim a “victim”; that presupposes a crime occurred. And there is no anonymity. A defendant in a criminal trial is entitled to know who his accuser is and confront him or her. Names sometimes are sealed, though usually for minor victims, from the…

A false accusation of sexual harassment is a far cry from a false accusation of rape.