Perspective: Rape horrible and hard crime to prosecute; we must do better

There is no doubt that there is a war on women, by men, who rape, sexually assault and sexually harass women. We must do better as a society to bring up young boys to respect women better.

Only a third of rape and sexual assault cases ever get reported to the police and of those cases that are reported to the police, only a small few make it to a jury trial. Sexual assault cases when making it to a jury trial results in a conviction just 7 percent of the time. Our criminal justice system requires a unanimous verdict in criminal cases. 48 states require unanimous decisions in jury trials. The two that don’t—Oregon and Louisiana—it takes just one juror to believe the defense attorney’s argument to result in a mistrial. Two mistrials and the charges usually get dropped.

In other criminal matters, a jury returns a conviction 84 percent of the time.

The statistics that prosecutors use and the evidence they need for rape and sexual assault conviction by jury must be overwhelming. If not the defendant goes free and the victim gets no justice.

Juries can be very fickle when it comes to court cases. O.J. Simpson had overwhelming evidence against him at trial and the jury ignored the evidence and returned a not guilty verdict, even to the shock of his own attorneys. They were hoping for just one juror to side with them to get a mistrial and the entire jury bought into the defense’s argument.

I have no relationship with any of the people involved in the case involving this family. I have to trust that the prosecution felt that the evidence they had and the fact that the defense needs just one juror to cause a mistrial, led to the plea bargain agreement. Remember just 7 percent of rape and sexual assaults that make it to the jury get a conviction. The judge concurred with the evidence and statistics and accepted the plea bargain.

You should be proud that your daughter stepped forward and publicly accused the defendant of the crime, two-thirds don’t. You should be proud that your daughter helped convict a sexual offender. You should be proud that she faced her accuser and won. He is now a convicted criminal with no credibility of innocence. He pled guilty to a crime of sexual misconduct with a minor and will always be known as a pervert. You should be proud that your daughter has been vindicated in the court of public opinion and sent this criminal to jail. It is not the complete outcome you desired but it is better than nothing. The odds were completely stacked against her and she is a hero for gaining this conviction. Tell her to hold her head high and be proud that she helped deliver justice to not only her and her family but to the community as a whole.

May God help heal your family from this tragedy.

Daryl Hensley
Jasper