Word 'Rape' Banned from Rape Trial in Nebraska

[ariesgem]

It's a case that's drawn national attention, a rape trial where no one could use the word rape. Tory Bowen grew up here in Southern California before heading to Nebraska for college. That's where she says she was raped. The judge in the case has now declared a mistrial.

It's prompted protests, mainly from the alleged victim herself, but now her father is speaking out, claiming his daughter's freedom of speech was taken away by a Nebraska judge. "My daughter was raped and now they're asking her not to have a fair trial for the rights of the defendant," Dennis Bowen, the alleged victim's father, said.

.........................................

Dennis Bowen is outraged the Nebraska judge in his daughter's rape trial ruled the word rape, among others, could not be spoken in court. "She could not use the word rape, victim, sexual assault kit, sexual assault nurse," Dennis Bowen said. "I refuse to call it sex or any other word that I'm supposed to say, encouraged to say on the stand, because to me that's committing perjury, what happened to me was rape, it was not sex," Tory Bowen, the alleged victim, said.

This was the second time the case had been tried. The first time ended in a hung jury, this time it was a mistrial. Dennis Bowen and his daughter are hoping the state will retry the case for a third time and they're hoping a judge will not forbid the use of those words.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=5478882

[NaturalHigh]

1. I can't see any logic in the judge's ruling.

It kind of seems like he was trying to stack the deck against the prosecution from the outset.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Wonder what the judge WOULD recognize as terms to describe the crime:

1. unacknowledged consent to sex

2. one-party consent to sexual congress

3. woman-getting-what-she-deserves

Geez, I know it's Nebraska, but what legal terminology do they use in the penal code to call rape what it is?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

3. Did they consider the term "alleged rape"?

Is the term "alleged crime" OK?

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. I read about this a week or so ago, it's ridiculous to say the least..

All they need to do is reframe it the right way and make the defense's heads explode.

Imagine Tory Bowen on the stand: ... and that is when he forcefully had sex with me, without my consent and despite my demands that he stop. I tried to fight him off, but he was too strong for me and he continued to forcefully have sex with me, against my will and consent."

or something along those lines... make it sound even more vile than what the word 'rape' implies. "Rape" is a word that has pretty much been diluted down from overusage. They rape the landscape with their bulldozers. They rape you at the gas pumps. Reframing it and calling it what it really is, an unwanted, uninvited sexual assault that has been forced upon you, would really mess with their minds.


Go with the flow on this one, and play it out for all it's worth.

[Richard Steele]

5. This judge needs to go. There's no way in hell he can justify this nonsense. nm

[greenbriar]

6. wonder what this judge would say if the victim were his mother/wife/daughter

or

sister???

[flyarm]

7. repeat after me..THE FRANKLIN COVER UP..MORE OF THE SAME OLD

SAME OLD!!

well no parent should let their dsugher go to college there if from out of state!!

Boycott Nebraska!!

money talks ..especially in Univeristies for out of state tuition!!

[ThomCat]

8. How do you have a trial if you're not allowed to describe or

name the crime? Why doesn't the judge to declare the he doesn't believe that rape really happens. Why doesn't he just declare that accused rapists are automatically innocent in his court.
:wtf: