Steubenville Rape Defense: It’s Not Rape Because Drunken, Barely Conscious Girl Didn’t Say ‘No’

In January, Anonymous made headlines for decidedly nonpolitical reasons as they exposed yet another sports town as a safe harbor for rapists. Two local jocks, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, were stupid enough to take pictures of themselves sexually assaulting an intoxicated and unconscious girl while several of their friends were not only stupid enough to record themselves joking about it, they put it online. But the defense team for Mays and Richmond have a very peculiar notion of how to keep their clients out of jail. Via The Atlantic Wire:


The very public trial of the very publicly shamed “rape crew” will begin on Wednesday in Steubenville, Ohio, and despite pre-trial testimony from three as-yet-untried high-school athletes who say they witnessed an unconscious 16-year-old dragged around by her hands and feet, and slurring her words, and at one point lying on the ground before she was penetrated, it appears that the lawyers for Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond will say the case’s Jane Doe consented to the whole thing. We’re not kidding. “Defense attorneys believe the girl, who lived across the river in Weirton, W.Va., made a decision to excessively drink and — against her friends’ wishes — to leave with the boys. They assert that she consented to sex,” reports the Cleveland Plain-Dealer‘s Rachel Dissell. Richmond’s attorney, Walter Madison, is getting specific, citing “an abundance of evidence here that she was making decisions, cognitive choices … She didn’t affirmatively say no.”

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/03/12/steubenville-rape-defense-its-not-rape-because-drunken-barely-conscious-girl-didnt-say-no/

These men are very guilty of rape but part of the blame can also be put on her friends. "against her friends’ wishes" when someone is that drunk, you do not give them a choice as their friend. I've been in that situation and have had to wrestle friends to the ground because they were trying to do something dangerous when they were black-out drunk. If you are at a party with friends, part of your job is to protect your friends and make sure they are safe, so you have to do what ever is necessary to make sure that stays true even if it "ruins" your night. With that being said these men better rot in prison and have their lives ruined by getting stuck on a sex offender list and lose everything they ever wanted in life.