judge bans word "rape" in rape trials
I'm kind of surprised no one has posted about this yet; it's going around my friends page like wildfire.
Judge bans word "rape" during a rape case
From Feministing: The article points out that judges have been known to keep certain words out of the courtroom, like 'victim', because it implies that crimes was committed. Safi's lawyer, Clarence Mock, argues that the word rape is similar: "It's a legal conclusion for a witness to say, 'I was raped' or 'sexually assaulted.' … That's for a jury to decide."
Lithwick hits the nail on the head: "The fact that judges are not rushing to ban similarly conclusory legal language from trial testimony-presumably one can still say murder or embezzlement on the stand-reflects not just the fraught nature of language but also the fraught nature of rape prosecutions. We as a society still somehow think rape is different-either because we assume the victims are especially fragile or because we assume they are particularly deceitful. Is the word rape truly more inflammatory to a jury than the word robbery?"
I find it interesting that this one has got everyone up in arms; left-wingers, right-wingers, feminists and non-feminists alike.
Judge bans word "rape" during a rape case
From Feministing: The article points out that judges have been known to keep certain words out of the courtroom, like 'victim', because it implies that crimes was committed. Safi's lawyer, Clarence Mock, argues that the word rape is similar: "It's a legal conclusion for a witness to say, 'I was raped' or 'sexually assaulted.' … That's for a jury to decide."
Lithwick hits the nail on the head: "The fact that judges are not rushing to ban similarly conclusory legal language from trial testimony-presumably one can still say murder or embezzlement on the stand-reflects not just the fraught nature of language but also the fraught nature of rape prosecutions. We as a society still somehow think rape is different-either because we assume the victims are especially fragile or because we assume they are particularly deceitful. Is the word rape truly more inflammatory to a jury than the word robbery?"
I find it interesting that this one has got everyone up in arms; left-wingers, right-wingers, feminists and non-feminists alike.