Evening star., 1948-12-17
An Affront to Justice

Standing alone, the acquittal by Dis
trict Court jury of man charged with
raping young married woman would be
shocking enough as gross miscarriage of
justice. But this case does not stand
alone.
Last September the young woman,
night telephone operator, was returning
home from work by bus. It was about 1880
In the morning The accused man,
North Carolinian, followed the bus in his
ear. After the woman had left the bus
and walked o short distance he jumped
out, grabbed her and forced her into the
car. When she screamed for help and
tried to blow the horn he hit her two or
three times with his fist and threatened
to kill her. These facts were undisputed.
The theory Of the defense was that
these facts were immaterial since the
woman did not offer further resistance
when the alleged rape occurred after she
had been driven to point about two miles
away from the scene Of the original as
sault. Although the testimony showed
that the woman was bleeding from the
mouth and severely bruised about the face
and forehead as 4 result of the blows
struck by the man, the jury accepted the
defense theory that the woman had not
redsted. The man was acquitted and
escaped without punishment Of any kind.
OF course, the effect Of this is to clear
the offender at the expense Of stigmatizing
the woman. She is embittered and she
has every right to be. For she reported
the matter to the police, as she should have
done. Then she went through the ordeal
Of testifying at public trial. And with
what result7 A verdict which reflects on
her character and sets the man free.
This result would be bad enough If
nothing more were at stake than the sensi-
bflities Of this victim Of a miscarriage of
Justice. But there Is more to the matter
than that. One ought to consider whether
there u Q growing tendency on the part
Of jurors to minimize the seriousness of the
crime Of rape and, If so, what the effect
IL going 10 be on the enforcement of the
law in this respect. -.
There seems to be notion-and it is a
mistaken one-that q rape is not rape
unlesA the victim "resists to the utmost"
whatever the meaning Of that may be. A
little more than year ago three hoodlums
beat and raped . thirteen-year-old girl.
Because the Judge in that case thought 1t
could not be proved beyond reasonable
doubt that the child had resisted to her
utmost" he imposed sentences which, con-
sidering the aggravated nature of the Of
tense, were relatively light A little later
q woman was brutally raped in the grounds
Of the Library Of Congress. The jury
refused to recommend the death penalty
and the Judge imposed the maximum Jail
sentence. He commented, however, that
the case was an "atrocious" one, and indi-
Gated he would have sent the man to the
electric chair had 1t not been for "the
generosity of the jury"
In rape cases there ought to be little
room for generosity on the part Of juries
toward defendants. And If we have
reached the point now where rape ceases
10 be rape because a woman submits
few minutes after she has been beaten
and her life threatened then all of us may
well ask, as did this latest victim, whether
there is any point in appealing to the
police or the courts. The people Of this
community, and Jurors especially, ought
TO consider whether society has any right
10 expect women to endure the humiliation
Of complaint and public trial in rape cases
when the results too often are an affront
TO any decent sense of justice.