Comments on: Release of Innocent Man Shows Huge Flaws in Sexual Assault Prosecutions

By: England and Wales Move to Grant Anonymity to Rape Defendants — The Curvature

Fri, 21 May 2010 19:03:58 +0000

[...] words, and other analogies!) But in those cases where similarly high levels of trauma are likely, such as those where false accusations are based in racism, this law would probably do little to help, and might even hinder, making it harder for racial [...]

By: SW

SW — Tue, 18 May 2010 00:48:40 +0000

m Andrea,
Possibly, but don’t be so quick to rule that out.
DNA evidence is releasing more and more prisoners of all races mistakenly accused, not only for rape, but other violent crimes as well.
Good news for them and their families, but not for the survivors who now have the twin horror of knowing they accused the wrong person and realizing the original offender may never have gotten caught.

By: m Andrea

m Andrea — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:13:12 +0000

Sounds like the police and prosecutors were just itching to accuse this guy. If the guy had been white, this case would have turned out like all the others where no charges are filed.

By: SW

SW — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:11:46 +0000

It did hyperlink after all. Didn’t look like it when I was writing it.

By: Social Worker

Social Worker — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:10:20 +0000

Another very similar story, only this man spent nearly 30 years in jail.
This is why so much more care needs to be taken with these cases.
Very poignant article. Probably deserves its own post.
Thank you for continuing to highlight the work of The Innocence Project, Cara.

Sorry, I couldn’t get it to hyperlink:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7120167.ece

By: Alas, a blog » Blog Archive » linkspam: Why didn’t you call the police? Part One

Wed, 12 May 2010 02:02:22 +0000

[...] then to top it off, POC face the extra burden of cops deciding to frame men of color instead of investigating to find out the real rapist. (And do not even BEGIN [...]

By: Eurazian

Eurazian — Sun, 09 May 2010 14:51:26 +0000

Farah Jama is definitely Somali, not Sudanese.

I think that racism and more significantly Islamophobia definitely played a part in his conviction. Once the DNA evidence pointed to him, it would have confirmed stereotypes that the jury may have had about black people and Muslims. After two cases of gang-rape in Sydney in recent years, there is a widely held suspicion of young Muslim men as likely rapists.

Interesting that his alibi (he was at home praying by the bedside of his critically ill father) was so easily dismissed by the jurors, despite being backed up by his family. To me that says that the jurors didn’t think his family were trustworthy (for possibly racist/religionist reasons), but also that they didn’t buy the idea of a young man spending a night reading the Qur’an when he could have been out partying. That concept would seem strange to a lot of Australians, but probably not to a Muslim.

By: Cara

Cara — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:47:23 +0000

Thinking upon it further, I think that false rape charges would be the more accurate phrasing. Alleged victims make accusations against alleged perpetrators; police and prosecutors bring charges against the alleged perpetrator if there is evidence indicating that sie committed the crime. But a clarification would probably still be in order, since I think that sadly, most people’s minds automatically jump to “woman lying about rape” rather than “police fucking up and refusing to admit it.”

By: Social Worker

Social Worker — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:44:01 +0000

Absolutely right and shame on me for not making that distinction clear.
I’m not sure how you’d distinguish between an intended false accusation and an accidental one. Maybe that’s the way.
Or just say that the false accusation came from law enforcement and not from the possible victim.

By: Cara

Cara — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:01:35 +0000

I’m not entirely sure that false rape accusation is entirely the right phrase, because it implies that the accuser was someone who said they were raped — not police and a prosecutor. To emphasize, this is not a case of someone who said they were raped, pointed out an accuser, and then turned out to be wrong in their accusation. This is a case of a woman saying that she didn’t remember being sexually assaulted, police doing a rape kit just to be sure, and then accusing someone themselves.