Cherry Simpson's Page

The crime of rape can never be the subject of ‘plea bargaining’. Rape is rape and there is nothing in between.

Murder may be reduced to manslaughter, rape is uniquely rape. Either it is rape or nothing. Unlike other crimes of violence, mitigating defenses such as provocation, lack of intent, or a mistaken belief in the woman’s consent are not available in cases of rape.

The crime is by itself sufficiently horrendous to deprive it of ‘mitigating circumstances’.

Regan's assailant reported his crime of rape to the police. He tried to preemptively spin the rape into an acceptable sexual desire of a husband but his language and reasoning gave him away. He confesses in his statement to the police that he turned her over, handcuffed her and forced her to have sex with him all the while she is screaming "NO!". He only let her out of the handcuffs because she screamed so loudly he was afraid someone would hear her.

It is not a matter of he said - she said when they are both saying the same thing.

The courts are over loaded. This is exactly why I would like to see more crime preventive measures taken like the GPS. We have micro chips in our metered mail thanks to anthrax and congress wanting to be kept alive. Hopefully it will spur on more crime preventive measures for the general public. Then battered women can be kept alive also.

The game that the defense plays is little more than cover up and confuse who is doing what to whom and thus condones marital rape. Wives are being blamed for getting themselves beat and raped by their husbands and then chastised for not liking them afterwards. Victims often face disbelief and blame, why? Would you ask "What in your background led you to a concentration camp?" Then the courts give visitation rights to the rapist.

Women's violations become the sneering wound of a "victim" pinned in by quotation marks. Victim's of sexual assault are especially not to be believed, they assume women lie.

Violence against women is systematically tolerated by our government. It's time to ask the justice system, what are you doing? Women need a voice in the creating new gender specific law. Respectfully to the women who work in the law, what is the meaning of your presence in a system that keeps women down and out? You're let into the system on the condition you abide by it's norms. If you do abide by it's norms, most women's lives will not change they'll continue in the cycle of dependence, poverty, forced labor, forced sexual access, and for many death. Women will be used and abused until they're used up. Women will be born, degraded and die.

Anyone who wants to stop something can not ignore law's ability to do nothing while looking like it is doing something. American women protest domestic battery and romantic love as an excuse for killing them. The law cares more for men blushing then women bleeding. Law should reflect reality.

Because he was allowed to plea out of the sex crime status the seriousness of his crime is now being withheld from the judge, in subsequent cases of him violating order of protection, and stalking, information relevant to appropriate punishment in all new cases is now tainted. (Viol OP 5 times)

I've read all the reasoning there is on plea-bargaining. I understand it can be a useful tool in some cases. But criminal sexual assault should never be plea bargained. Doing so is allowing sexual predators to get away with their crimes and they will continue to victimize others. The criminal himself is now justified that his behavior was acceptable.

Rape is rape and there is nothing in between. Especially when you have a confession, evidence and victim cooperation. Rape is not sexual in nature my daughter's medical exam will attest to that. She was severely beaten. Rape is an act of criminal violence of the worst kind.

Why then plea bargain? To lesson the load in the courts? How is that justice? My daughter is still in the courts 2 yrs later. If he had been given the sentence he deserved he'd still be behind bars. Any additional criminal acts would be able to see his true criminal history. Instead this plea bargaining has enabled this criminal in continuing his reign of terror even from behind bars.

I'm not a lawyer, I'm just a Mom and Nana. I want women and children to be protected as they should be, our greatest God given treasures, not ignored and sacrificed for judicial expediency and financial reasons.

Sincerely,

Cherry Simpson
Mother of a marital rape and abuse victim