In the article “Die Trying”, Katie J.M. Baker points out the difficulties of being a rape victim in Alabama and nationwide. The article “Die Trying” talks about a student named Megan Rondini who attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa who accused T.J. Bunn Jr. of rape. The events that led to sexual assault happened in July 1, 2015 at night where Megan Rondini went to Innisfree Irish Pub with a couple of her sorority sisters and drank five cups of beer. After drinking the beer Megan Rondini blacked out and found herself in T.J. Bunn’s car with his friend going back to his house.
Jeffrey Moldowan and Michael Cristini, two men from Macomb County, Michigan, went on trial accused of rape and assault. The primary evidence against them consisted of the victim’s eyewitness identification and bite mark analysis by two dentists. Both dentists testified that the bite marks on the woman’s body matched the teeth of Cristini and Moldowan. One of those dentists, Allan Warnick, testified that the likelihood a bite mark on the female victim was made by someone other than Moldowan, “was at least 3 million to 1.” Later, the other dentist, Dr. Pamela Hammel recanted her testimony, saying that she had been uncertain that either defendant had in fact been responsible for the bite marks.
Timothy Brian Cole, a Texas Tech student, was convicted of a sexual assault he did not commit in 1985. He was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. The real rapist was Jerry Johnson, who had a psychological breakdown and kept his mouth shut for nine years. Cole was a victim of the police and the flaws in the criminal justice system. Johnson tried to contact Cole, but had no success.
Can you imagine being incarcerated for almost 20 years for a crime that you didn’t commit? Can you imagine the turmoil and agony Clarence Harrison endured while living out years imprisoned waiting the day that he would be found out to be a free man? What about the fear of now being released from prison after have served 17 years, being thrust back in society and told to live as though he had never been removed? Clarence Harrison was a 28 years old when he was arrested of the streets of Decatur, Ga.
On January 13, 1964, fourteen-year-old Pamela Mason replied to a newspaper ad looking for a babysitter. Pamela was picked up by the person who had placed the ad and she was never seen again. 13 days later, she was found stabbed and shot to death in a snowbank in Manchester, New Hampshire. Authorities began investigating the case and found that it had resemblances to the unsolved death of Sandra Valade in 1960, and believed that the two cases were possibly related. A few weeks after Pamela’s murder, a local woman named Rena Paquette started telling people that she knew who was responsible for Pamela's death.
During the fall of 1993, Shirley Crook’s, a loving mother and wife, life was horribly cut short in one of the most horrific ways possible, drowning. Seventeen year old, Christopher Simmons, wrapped his victim in duct tape and electrical cords and drowned her in a river with help from his accomplices John Tessmer and Christopher Benjamin. He attempted to burglarize the Crooks residence along with his accomplices, and he only murdered Mrs. Crooks because ‘the bitch seen my face’ (State v. Simmons). He “assured his friends that their status as juveniles would allow them to ‘get away with it.’... Brian Moomey, a 29-year-old convicted felon who allowed neighborhood teens to "hang out" at his home.
On novermber 5th, Brown was pulled over by a police officer and was asked to be a stand in for a police line up case. A female police officer took him back to the shareffs station to put orange on so he can stand in. The victim identified him as the perpertrator who raped her. After the line up four days later, Dennis Brown was taken to jail and accused him of rape. "I denied the perpetrator as him, then was taken to a holding cell" (exoneree
In “Paul’s Case” by Willa Carther, Paul is a very peculiar kid. Many readers make the assumption that Paul has a mental illness. Not only may he have a mental illness, his father does not support him. Along with his unsupportive father, he does not have anyone to turn to when he needs help. He has friends and people he can speak with at the theatre, but they do not compare to parents.
Timothy Cole After being raped while held at knifepoint, Michele Mallin was able to identify Timothy Cole twice. The first time being a polaroid, where Timothy Cole was facing forward while the mugshots of the other photos were facing to the side; the second time she identified Cole was in a lineup. With absolute certainty on Mallin’s part, Mallin picked out Timothy Cole as her attacker and rapist in both instances. In court, a forensic examiner presented Mallin’s rape kit data from the hospital post attack.
In 2010, "False Allegations of Sexual Assualt: An Analysis of Ten Years of Reported Cases" ,David Lisak and three co-authors state "...that prevalence of false allegations is between 2 percent and 10 percent."[Krakauer 122] A fact that false reports are very uncommon. Krakauer uses this fact to give the reader an idea of how low false reports really are. To show that the overwhelming majority of rape cases are true yet the Missoula's police department right from the start don't believe the victim so much that they contradict her and deny that any of it although that's the opposite of what it the cops should be aspected.
In July of 1984, Jennifer Thompson, a 22-year-old college student, awoke around 3:00 a.m. to find someone in her apartment. When she asked who was there, a man jumped on her, pinned her arms to the side of her head, put a knife to her throat, and raped her. Despite her terror, she was determined to identify her rapist so he would pay for his crimes. Once her eyes adjusted to the dark, she used the light coming through her blinds and bedroom window, as well as her nightlight to see if he had any tattoos, scars, unusual jewelry, how he parted his hair, what he was wearing, and anything else that would be useful in identifying him. She made sure that when he allowed her to stand up she stood close to him so she could determine how tall he was.'
In the year 1997, a man named Vanhoose was shot four times for refusing to give a robber money from his store. The culprit then fled the crime scene and jumped into the passenger’s seat of a car while taking off his mask. Numerous witnesses saw this criminal leave the crime scene, including a woman who later identified a seventeen year old named Ryan Matthews as the gunman. Furthermore, even Ryan Matthews' friend, Travis Hayes, eventually confessed to the crime of driving Matthews away from the crime scene (Ryan Matthews n.d). Although, the fact is worth mentioning that Hayes, and Mathews as well, suffered from some sort of learning disability, so Hayes' confession may have not been by his own volition (University of Michigan Law School 2023).
Brock Allen Turner, shares the story of 19 year old, Stanford swimmer, Brock Turner and his heinous crime of sexual assault on multiple accounts towards Emily Doe. The assailant pleaded innocent throughout his trial, however, throughout his interview his linguistics told a different story. While speaking with authority, he failed to “directly acknowledge her, this deflecting his responsibility to her for his action, essentially erasing the victim from the description of the event.” Which continues to prove his guilt in the case. “While these charges can carry up to fourteen years in prison, Brock Turner served just three months in a county jail”.
The victim describes to the judge how on March 1997, she came home from a friend's wedding party where she was kidnapped at gunpoint from her condominium parking lot near Quail Corners shopping center. Vaughan then raped her in her car and forced her to withdraw money from an ATM machine, then left her on a deserted road and stole her car. Word of a serial rapist terrified Charlotte residents in early 1998, until a fingerprint at one of the crime scenes led investigators to Vaughan. Vaughan turned himself in and confessed to each crime, investigators said. The 21-year-old Charlotte man pleaded guilty to the rape charges and 33 other crimes, including kidnappings, sex offenses, robberies, burglaries, house and car break-ins, larcenies and credit card theft.
Prior to this, his girlfriend, Twila Hoffman, had her car’s license recognized by a rape victim’s brother. The victim, Ann Jameson, recognized Ernesto in a police lineup a few days later as the man who assaulted her (Landmark Cases of the Supreme Court, Ernesto Miranda). He was officially charged for robbery, kidnapping, and rape of a handicapped woman. (Legal Cultural Literacy Test, Ernesto Miranda) After being identified, Ernesto was interrogated for two hours until finally signing a confession.
