Stiff sentence.
Curious as to how this happened where no one else was around to hear or be available to help. The article says "as the two slept outside after training." Is everybody spread out that far for sleeping on a field problem?
Stiff sentence.
Curious as to how this happened where no one else was around to hear or be available to help. The article says "as the two slept outside after training." Is everybody spread out that far for sleeping on a field problem?
You know I was thinking the same thing. One scream for help and 100 people should have been there.
I'm gonna go upon the assumption there's a lot more information available to convict him on that we are not privy to.
Sorry. I have a hard time reaching your opinion that a 21 year sentence is s stiff sentence for raping anyone let alone a fellow cadet.
Would "inconsistent" have been a word more palatable to you?
Agreed 100%. Last thing I will say is that, while the justice system isn't perfect, it is designed to protect the rights of the accused, giving benefit of the doubt to the defendant. Sometimes a person is wrongly convicted, but not usually, and more often the "jury mistakes" work in favor of the defendant. Frankly, that is how it should be. So, without hearing the evidence I still trust that the verdict was just.Given the few details published about the actual circumstances, it's natural to speculate, given the proximity, about cries for help.
One of the things I learned over the years dealing with rape and sexual assault cases as someone in the chain of command, as a CO/XO, as a senior staff officer on a flag staff with GCM (General Court Martial) authority, and as a jury member on a few courts martial, is that while we are familiar with a fight or flight response, there is also a well-documented flight, flight or freeze response. A victim goes silent and detached to survive when he or she feels flight is impossible and fight is unwinnable, plus other contributing factors such as social pressure. In date rape/known attacker situations, the victim is often deeply shocked by the thought that a trusted person is doing this. Plenty of reading material on this.
I always hated the he said/she said (or any gender combo, I have seen those too) situations, with no witnesses. As Judge B said, it often comes down to the credibility of the victim.
I personally hope I have the courage to scream, bite, kick, gouge anyone who attacks me, regardless of the cost to me - but I simply don't know what my reaction would be.
I wonder if the victim is still at WP.
Kids make horrible choices sometimes, and I can be sympathetic. But raping a young lady, under any circumstance, is horrendous, and inexcusable. If you trust the verdict, the defendant has earned the sentence, just as others have for the same offense before him. It is too bad that someone with such promise and opportunity would do such a thing, thus ruining his life; it is even worse though that the victim, who had every bit the same promise and opportunity, has had her life compromised. WP cadets are special, and tough. I hope she moves forward and does well.
When I saw this sentencing I couldn't help but think that 4 states in the United states have a maximum sentence for second degree murder is 20 years (or even less than 20 in some of them). Obviously what this person did is absolutely horrible, and I think a strong case could be made that it is worthy of even more punishment than he got, but what I don't think is that a strong case could be made that it is worthy of more punishment than intentionally ending another human being's life. Makes one question the justice system we live under.
Quite a few things in your post don't go against what I said.I have to ask... have you served in the military? The punishments are often more "harsh" in the military and for good reason. Crimes against fellow service members can do much to destroy the military cohesion of a unit and can have a profound effect on its primary function- defending the country against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
In my time as a commander I court-martialed two soldiers for theft (they were barracks thieves), and both received sentences that were probably twice what they would have received in the civilian world. But the message got out- you don't violate the trust between your fellow soldiers.
Rape within a unit can be even worse. I remember the example of an infantry unit in Afghanistan some years ago where abuse by a junior NCO was overlooked, to the point where he was raping and sodomizing some of his soldiers. It tore the unit apart and ended up with at least one of the soldiers committing suicide.
No, the message needs to be sent out loud and clear. Do not violate the trust among soldiers. The last thing a female in a foxhole needs to worry about is her fellow service member.