Carol, I'm so sorry to learn of real life clobbering you. I know what that's like, even if I don't know your particular circumstances. I hope that your tears will soon give way to laughter.
Ann wrote:
I see. I guess I'm glad that it's not juries that make the decisions in sex crime cases in my country, then.
The right to a trial by peer is one of those the American Revolution was fought for in 1776, Ann. It prevents a dishonest judge from sending people to prison because he doesn't like them or because they can't give him a big bribe.
Besides, you're mixing your verdicts. A conviction on a count of rape does not automatically bring a monetary judgment. It brings on a criminal penalty for the one convicted, and in this story Paul is going to serve some time in prison for what he's done to Lois and to others.
The monetary offers given to Lois and Clark and the other women are for avoiding a civil trial, not a criminal trial. The two events are linked by participants and by action, but one does not automatically follow the other. When OJ Simpson was acquitted of murder, he was free of criminal penalties linked to that event. But he wasn't free of civil penalties. A subsequent civil trial determined that he was liable for the wrongful death of his ex-wife and her boyfriend. That verdict cost him a great deal of money, but it did not and could not put him behind bars.
Not being convicted of a crime doesn't mean you won't suffer civil penalties. And conviction of a crime doesn't automatically mean you will suffer civil penalties, either. At least, not in the USA.
