Getting Off Podcast book club discussion

The authors of A False Report describe the long history of skepticism in the legal system towards rape victims. It seems like this book clearly should be essential reading for police and prosecutors. Given the perspective of this podcast, how can defense attorneys effectively represent their clients without reinforcing such skepticism and contributing to society’s distrust and disbelief of victims?

So, let me start to try and answer that by saying that everything about this young woman’s report rang completely true to me, and I’m simultaneously stunned and unsurprised at what happened to her. In terms of credibility, wanting attention from a foster parent hardly equates to a likelihood of falsely reporting rape.

To answer your question, though...I think there’s an inherent and unavoidable tension between defense work and victim-blaming, because the nature of our profession is question the veracity of *every witness* against our client, and some of those witnesses will be crime victims. The system is adversarial and stacked (theoretically at least, in practice not so much) to afford the accused a multitude of protections victims just don’t legally have. I think we as defense attorneys have a responsibility to not *gratuitously* blame victims. I also personally prefer to reframe the inquiry as whether the burden of proof is met rather than whether someone is believable. But yes, inherently, we are no friend to victims. That’s why I always hope for a skilled and compassionate prosecutor—that’s when the system works the best, when both sides have strong and zealous advocates.

I always appreciate hoe Jessa and Nick separate the crime and the legal responsibility of burden of proof. I just hope prosecutors can sensitively educate the victim about the purpose of the legal system. That the outcome of a case is not the victim weight to carry and can be independent of their credibility. That they also provide resources for healing outside of criminal justice setting since we have now been educated that is not the purpose.

I finished the book and was so saddened that in the end she still felt so much guilt about recanting her statement. The chances of this guy being caught because of her statement was so slim as he had thought his crime out so thoroughly yet she still felt the responsibility lay on her shoulders. It took a team with amazing technology to create the smallest of cracks with the white Mazda to have a starting point of a name. It always scares me that law enforcement has so much power that all it takes is their word against yours and their could be an arrest warrant for you and potential prison time for something you didn’t do. It was a great book even if the narrator was soooo boring. I had to rewind a couple of times and re-listen as I felt my mind wander from her monotone voice :)

On that note, what really didn't make sense to me is that Marie told the police about her rape five or six times my my count, yet it took one confession, under duress, for police to disregard her victim statement and close her case. Related to that, I was angry (but not really surprised) that police were hesitant to believe a juvenile (evidenced by the fact that Marie had to tell her story multiple times), yet when an adult (Marie's current and former foster parents) doubted Marie's story, police viewed them as much more credible.

Did you just call Jessa a hoe?! Hah. I just finished reading the book. Very interesting, but sometimes hard to follow. Thanks for setting this up Matt!