Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Legal question

Would an attempted assault on a woman, and testimony from more than one reliable witness arriving in time to halt the attack, be enough to get the average villain jail time?

If, as a result of the attack, other young women came forward with similar experiences (happening a year or more before and not reported at the time out of, say, fear), would their tales have any effect on the current case?

Thanks!

~Toc

Toc,

Weight would be given to the rescuer's testimony but any half-decent defense attorney would fry the other victims. If they didn't report the attack at the time then it becomes less credible. There's no proof, other than their word, that it ever happened.

Ironically, even if those attacks were reported at the time, they most likely wouldn't be admissable as evidence since they could prejudice the jury against the defendant.

It sucks, but sometimes the victims have fewer rights than the criminal.

Sue

Sue is correct in what she says, but it's a little more complicated than than. It would depend on the jurisdiction (which state this took place in), whether or not the DA could produce physical proof of the other assaults (DNA, other witnesses, articles of victims' clothing in the possession of the suspect, etc.), if there was some kind of photographic evidence, any previous convictions against the suspect (which might or might not be admissible), and any number of other factors. Plus, if we have incidents occuring across state lines, the Feds could get involved, and those laws don't work the same as state laws. Federal prosecutors often have more leeway in presenting evidence than state prosecutors do.

In other words, this could go either way. But I do echo Sue's comment that suspects do seem to have more rights than victims at times. It's one of the prices we pay for living in a society where the rights of the individual are as important (or sometimes more important) than the general health and safety of society as a whole. Of course, that's an entirely different discussion!

So we could discount the other victims; how likely would it be that the guy would get any jail time if the "only" evidence (admissible evidence) against him, then, was the testimony of the victim and her two rescuers?

Thanks!

~Toc

Again, it depends a lot on the state this where this takes place (I'm assuming US law; I know next to nothing about laws in Canada or Mexico, and even less about such laws in Europe or Asia). How badly was this victim beaten? How much did the two rescuers actually see? What did they do to the alleged assailant? What is the age difference between the accused and the victim? Did the accused already have a relationship with the victim, and/or with her rescuers? If so, how close were they? Has the victim been involved in these kinds of incidents before? Does law enforcement consider the assailant a threat to repeat his actions?

Sorry, but this isn't a "soup question." (Please see the movie "Finding Forrester" for a full disclosure of the meaning of this phrase.) It's complex and diverse, and it depends on so many factors you haven't spelled out that there's no one right answer. And evidence that would convict the assailant in Texas might not lead to a conviction in New Hampshire, or vice versa.

But it would be fun to read how you might develop this theme. Was I a bettin' man, I'd bet you'd have FOLCs on the edges of their seats with this one.

Also a lot depends on the jury that hears the case. You have some that if the offender is young want to give them another chance. Again this is affected by whether or not the offender has a criminal record and is it admissable in court. And it depends on the jury foreperson as to whether or not they can keep the jury on track of looking at the evidence and tone down some of the emotional baggage people bring to jury duty with them. An example of this:

I was on a jury where the man admitted selling a class 4 ? drug (a narcotic) to an undercover cop. It occurred in a bar know for drug trafficking, and the "suspect" was cultivated by the cop because he was a suspect in the drug trade in this bar. Well his defense was "the undercover" cop was a friend and he was doing him a favor. This guy on the jury was hanging us because he bought into this "friend" bit. We finally convinced him that it didn't matter because what he did was illegal no matter who because he didn't give it to the man but he sold it for a considerable market up of what he paid for it at the pharmacy. If it was a friend he would have either given the guy a pill or 2 or sold it for his cost not profit. His justification for his original view was that he would ask his neighbors for drugs like pencillin and give them to his kids without going to a doctor. Which, of course, is so dangerous.

As I said we had a hard time with this one guy on the jury. The bottom line was what the man did was illegal and he admitted he did it. So how can you turn around and find him not guilty.

In this case the man finally relented and voted guilty because it was a 6 member jury and the judge said we had to come back with a verdict and the 5 of us said not way were we going to vote not guilty since the defendent admitted to the criminal act. So in order to get to go home the guy changed his vote.

I'm a law student, and I don't check the boards that much any more. With regard to the legal implications of how long the sentence will be and what he will be charged with definitely depends on the state. Few federal statutes deal with criminal offenses, and each state has similar but different codes governing criminal offenses. A lot of criminal codes are similar to the Model Penal Code, an idealized version of a criminal code, but I don't think there are any states that follow it exactly. However, I think you have a lot of leeway with New Troy because they are a fictional jurisdiction and as long as their laws aren't too out of line from the MPC, you can make them almost everything you want.

I didn't do that well (didn't really pay attention) in Criminal Law, but I can try to help if you need it.