We interrupt this Kobe-free-zone to note, if you need to suppress evidence and keep facts hidden in order to make your court case then you are inherently dishonest.
Case in point, this ruling in the Kobe case. That our legal system routinely hides such evidence from juries tells you a lot about what's wrong with our system.
Is this an example of prosecutorial abuse of Kobe, or a two-tiered system of justice favoring Kobe?
Please visit my post and comment.
I am sorry that you equate knowing the sexual past of a woman who says she has been raped with "hiding . . .evidence from juries." Most of what is wrong with our "system" is, in my opinion, that attorneys believe that they should try to "win" their case--either as prosecutors or defenders, without worrying about the actual guilt or innocence of the defendant.
The rape shield law is very recent. For over 200 years, women's sexual history could be examined in rape trials, and was often used to blame the victim. In other words, if the woman's sexual mores were not at the standard of a "decent" white, middle-class American, then she probable "asked for it." If I was you, I would not equate the rape-shield law with keeping "facts hidden in order to make your court case."
I think we should completely overhaul our entire legal system, starting with being able to plead or find an accused "Guilty, but Insane." I also think that the police should be taught that we do not want them ever to find a fall guy, we want them to find the actual perpetrator. I want the prosecutors and the defence to always disclose all the evidence. I never want an innocent person prosecuted or found guilty, and I want the guilty to to receive just punishment.
But I do not want to go backwards. Women routinely refused to report or prosecute rape because of the damage to their lives that a court case could cause. I hope no woman that you know or care about is ever raped, and I hope that you will be supportive of women that have been devestated by this kind of crime. (and men too, and persons whose gender does not fit neatly into the two catagories.)
Sincerely, Karen Zazzaretti
Were rape shield laws designed to make it easier to convict men of questionable guilt? I don't think so, either.
What I'm talking about here goes far beyond rape cases. All kinds of criminal cases have evidence supressed not because of concern over guilt or innocence, but because of politically sensitive lawyers and judges and leislatures. One of the more prominent occurences have been the recent medical marijuana cases. Defendants were tried on federal charges, while judges have specifically denied the defendants the right to tell juries that what they did was specifically allowed by state law.