One Of The Steubenville Rapists Has Been Freed After 9 Months

[LanternWaste]

Ma’lik Richmond, one of the two young football players who was found “delinquent” of having raped a young girl in Steubenville, OH, last year, has been freed from his sentence at a juvenile detention facility. Though the sentence was supposed to carry a minimum of one year in detention, Richmond got out early on good behavior. He served nine months.

Over the course of the trial last Spring, Richmond was portrayed by the media as a sympathetic character — a boy whose “life had read like a script from the movie ‘The Blind Side,’” according to one flattering ABC profile, and was now ruined. At the time, Richmond’s lawyer, Walter Madison, played up the sympathetic aspect as well, stressing that Richmond struggled in his home life and that a conviction would make him have to answer “at 75 years old… for something they did at 16 when scientific evidence would support your brain isn’t fully developed.”

Upon his release Sunday, Richmond’s lawyer again put out a statement asking for sympathy and stressing how much Richmond’s life had been altered. “The past sixteen months have been extremely challenging for Ma’Lik and his extended family,” Madison said. “At sixteen years old, Ma’Lik and his family endured hardness beyond imagine for any adult yet alone child. He has persevered the hardness and made the most of yet another unfortunate set of circumstances in his life.” The statement did not mention the rape victim.

The Steubenville rape case is far from over. Trent Mays, Richmond’s accomplice in the rape, remains in detention where he is serving a two year sentence. And several adults are also now under investigation or have been arrested for helping to cover up the assault.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/06/3121601/steubenville-freed/

[In_The_Wind]

1. Richmond’s punishment is over but the pain will never end for his victim.

[BainsBane]

2. For all the deniers of rape culture

This is it.

Really pisses me off. How many more women will he rape?

[ismnotwasm]

3. Of course

I don't give a fuck how "challenging" his life has been. Part of his sentence should have been to put in a lot of time in at homeless shelters and soup kitchens.

[Sheldon Cooper]

4. Oh yeah, he endured hardness beyond imagine.

What about his victim, you fucking asshole?

[geek tragedy]

5. We forget the real victim here, the football team that was forced

to play without him!

Sadly, there are people even here who think like that.

[MadrasT]

6. My heart bleeds for what he has had to "endure".

Fucking assholes make me ill, framing this as if he deserves anyone's sympathy.

What the fuck is wrong with people?

[KitSileya]

7. And let's not ignore the most condemning paragraph of the article -

"The statement did not mention the rape victim."

No apologies, no remorse, no acknowledgement of the wrongs he did. How can that be "good behavior?" This makes me sick!

[redqueen]

8. I'm not reading it.

Just the little bit quoted in this thread is far more than enough.

[KitSileya]

9. I did go to the link because it was a comment on the press release,

not the press release itself. I do understand your repugnance at reading it.

Thinkprogress had in the article, as a paragraph of its own, the sentence I quoted. It really made it stand out, and I like that at least some of the media acknowledges the lack of the victim in this press release. That lack of mention is what more than anything other tells me we live in a rape culture. The legal/press team of a convicted rapist, whose crime was proven by his own photographs of it, knows that it isn't necessary to show remorse to the public. The know it isn't necessary for a convicted rapist to acknowledge the atrocity he committed to gain the public's approval. They are betting that the public doesn't care about the victim either. I doubt we'll see mainstream media pointing out the lack.

[redqueen]

10. Exactly.

It's fucking heartbreaking.

When people question the existence of rape culture or even just attempt to minimize it, it truly affects my appreciation of their character as a human being.

[historylovr]

11. I'm surprised he even served that long.

How nice for him. Meanwhile his victim will serve a lifetime. But no thought for her or what she's had to endure or will endure. So fucking typical.

[nomorenomore08]

12. Funny how one African-American kid who committed rape was treated sympathetically by the media

while another who (in all likelihood) did nothing wrong was vilified, posthumously, as a thug and criminal.