Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993 TAG: 9305180340
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But, incredibly, a grand jury last year had set scot-free a confessed rapist because his victim, fearing AIDS, had asked the attacker to wear a condom. The grand jury concluded that her request was equivalent to consent to be raped.
Keep in mind: This was a drunken stranger who broke into the woman's house in the middle of the night, and held a knife to her throat while he raped her.
He did not deny that he did these things. He admitted it. It was, rather, the victim's behavior that prompted a jury last year to refuse an indictment.
She knew she could not stop the sexual assault. By asking him to wear a condom, she hoped she might prevent potential death from AIDS.
In other words, even in a desperate situation, a frightened woman took what sensible action she could to protect herself. Showing a preference for rape over death hardly constitutes an invitation to aggravated sexual assault.
Indeed, it's plainly baffling that anyone could conclude that her action nullified his. Yet that is precisely what this grand jury did - touching off rage and revulsion with good cause.
Fortunately, a district attorney was able to take the case to another grand jury, which indicted Joel Rene Valdez in October. Last week, Valdez was convicted.
We are very wary of second-guessing juries; the public gets only a bit of the mass of information and evidence the juries inside a courtroom hear. We also are very wary of subjecting verdicts to tests of political correctness. Evidence and the law, not grand social themes or potential political repercussions, should guide jury deliberations.
Still, we can't avoid lamenting that it was necessary to jump through extra legal hoops to bring this disturbing, discouraging case to a just end.
In no way can a woman's efforts to protect her life when she's being sexually assaulted be likened to agreement to the sexual assault.
What should make Americans cringe in regard to this case is not simply the rape - though every one ought to be incensed every time it happens, and regrettably this crime of violence is on the increase.
It's also the telling evidence that some people in our society still harbor the notion that women want to be raped, even ask for it.
How long before rape victims are not violated again by people who believe the victims - by what they wear, or how they act - somehow connive to be raped?
In the words of placards carried by demonstrators on the victim's behalf outside the Texas courthouse: "What part of NO don't you understand?"
by CNB