Woman jailed over retracted rape allegations to challenge conviction

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

A Welsh woman jailed for retracting "truthful" rape claims against her allegedly violent husband is to challenge her conviction at the court of appeal in London after a legal team offered to represent her for free.

The 28-year-old mother, known as Sarah, wants to clear her name after being released from jail by the lord chief justice, Lord Judge, last month. She had served 18 days of an eight-month sentence for perverting the course of justice.

When she left Styal prison in Manchester, Sarah told the Guardian she had lost everything during a "year of hell" in the criminal justice system.

She is still living with her sister in a cramped conditions and reporting to probation once a week. Her estranged husband – and alleged abuser – has moved back into the marital home with the children and is refusing to give them back.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/dec/17/retracted-rape-allegations-conviction-challenge

[Lance_Boyle]

1. Filing and then retracting charges is equivalent to filing false charges.

The penalty for filing false charges is usually about waste of resources - seems the same is the case here.

[Deep13]

2. In my experience, it's usually about retracting truthful charges.

The victim has either been intimidated or else the offender emotionally manipulates the victim into forgiving him.

[Lance_Boyle]

3. And that seems to be what this story is about - retracting truthful charges

Of course, without the trial there's no determining the "truth" of the charges, so that's sort of up in the air. Seems to me that when a crime is alleged, the State has an interest in pursuing charges regardless of the alleged victim's wishes (kind of like how when cops are called for domestic violence, someone is going to be hauled away regardless of any sudden change of heart when the cuffs come out). Of course, that would require testimony from the alleged victim (right to face one's accuser in court being sacrosanct). I have no problem with compelling testimony from a reluctant accuser in that situation. Or with punishing a reluctant accuser for refusing to cooperate. Nobody benefits when false charges are filed, or when potentially legit charges or filed and then retracted for whatever reason.

[Deep13]

4. I've successfully defended convictions where the victim recanted at trial.

Other evidence is used to prove the offense. Usually, it is evidence of injuries and statements made by the victim to witnesses immediately after the event when the victim was still angry and upset. The state can't really do anything without a conviction, but I don't think it is really fair to say that there is no way of determining the truth without a trial.

[Lance_Boyle]

5. There's no way for *the legal system* to determine the truth without a trial.

Obviously the two people involved (referring back to the original story) know the truth, albeit possibly two very different versions of it. ;-) I still wonder how they determine the truthfulness of retracted allegations before prosecuting the alleged "victim" who subsequently un-alleged him-or-herself out of that status. And do they also prosecute those who file false charges and then retract them? Is the penalty for that any worse?

[ZombieHorde]

6. I absolutely love your signature line. nt

[USA_1]

7. ''do they also prosecute those who file false charges and then retract them?''

That is up to the police and prosecutors.

Years ago when I was in law school we had a case where a woman filed false rape charges on 8 different occasions and succeeded in having these innocent men convicted just on her word alone. Years later she filed yet another false rape charge but this time was caught by the quick thinking of a young female student working as a legal apprentice in a prosecutors office (the latter recognized the liar's name from her past readings in other legal cases). The woman who made these false accusations was arrested, charged and convicted for filing false charges. In our law class we learned that those innocent men spent much time in prison. But we did not learn of their ultimate fate (such as any possible compensation or release dates). Some of them likely faced gang rape attacks in prison and while society often laughs at such victimization it is not funny to those victims of their families.