10/13

Today in class Professor Condon was absent!

David went into detail about his case first, it was about Andrew Appleton, an associate professor in political science at Washington State University. Appleton was charged with raping his niece who lived with himself and his wife. Niece was afraid to say anything because she didn't want to be kicked out of the university. This went on for about two years before his niece informed his wife who called the police. Appleton was arrested; however, as of 2015 he still worked for WSU and was on the payroll. He still lives in Moscow, ID, and was not forced to be put on the registry. Due to Appleton's tenure, he was given special treatment through the university. It is unexpected that a professor with tenure such as Appleton would do something like this, but as we have learned, it is not typically the people we expect to do these things.

Dakota went next and he had the Duke Lacrosse case. During spring break the Duke Lacrosse players threw a party and there "were no girls around" and so they hired two strippers. Magnum (one of the strippers) was very drunk and on muscle relaxers, around 2 am after being harassed, the girls decided to leave. Magnum left with Roberts (the other stripper) who eventually kicked her out of the car and called the police. When they were leaving one of the players yelled out, "we wanted whites, not n*****s". Magnum picked out the guys in the police lineup, as the case went on she began changing her story, DNA tests were held back (rape kit that had no evidence - all 3 charged gave sperm samples that showed them innocent). The attorney for the case was saying it was a racially aggravated crime, he was with holding evidence that proved them innocent. State Bar charged attorney with ethics violations. All charges were eventually dismissed because Magnum was lying the entire time. Magnum had charges of impersonating a police officer and then murdered her boyfriend. The whole time Roberts was against it because she claimed there wasn't enough time for this to have occurred. At first the team was suspended for 2 games by NCAA, then President of Duke ended 2006 season early, coach was forced to resign. All 3 were temporarily suspended, 1 returned and 2 (seniors) did not return. One of the biggest false accusations, had changed the view on athletic cases. People typically stand behind the athlete just because they were student athletes and seeing that Duke players were innocent makes people think a lot of charges against athletes are false claims. We saw a lot of tropes with Magnum being referred to as a stripper and Roberts as a dancer. Because Magnum is a stripper it makes it sound more okay?

Connor's case was the Recy Taylor rape case who was abducted and robbed at gunpoint and raped by 4-7 white men on her way home from church in 1944. She was a young black woman, and the extent of the deputies search was driving her into town and checking one store, saying they couldn't find them, and giving up. Due to the time being the 1940's, the police didn't care to help a young black woman who was assaulted by white men. 65 years later, Daniel McGuire published a book and talking about her case and the lack of justice, Recy was "afraid to go out at night, to be alone, and then of life itself." It wasn't about the sex, it was about having the power over her. Rosa Parks looked into this case and investigated and she also had a near rape experience so she resonated with Recy. After the book came out, the mayor of the town where the rape had occurred issued an apology, along with the state houses of Alabama.

Today we played with the idea of race in rape cases and how it can have an effect on the rhetoric used, and how it changes the outcome. Race can play a factor in the publicity (or lack thereof) that cases get, and it can destroy or build a case. It is interesting to see the rhetoric used in rape cases involving racial issues as compared to cases without.