Lessons From the Strauss-Kahn Case
As rape charges are dismissed against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, very serious questions arise about our criminal justice system and how the case was able to get as far as it did without any serious analysis of the evidence. What is also called into question is how the American media covers criminal cases in such a way that it is all but assumes that the defendant is guilty. Both of these issues have far reaching consequences on our criminal justice system and now is the perfect time to have some serious introspection on how criminal cases are handled in this country.
This case began when an immigrant hotel maid gave a stirring account of having been sexually brutalized by one of the most powerful men in the world. The case had an almost poetic ring to it when we witnessed Strauss-Kahn being paraded in hand cuffs before the world in the “perp walk” and we exalted in the idea that neither fame nor fortune could insulate him from what could only be his just rewards, a prison cell at Rikers Island. To make matters worse, the judge in the case appeared to triumph in her own virtue as she denied him bail. Many commentators talked about how he should be forced to stay in jail until trial just like any other common criminal and that his money and power could not help him escape what he did too this poor woman. He was all but tried and convicted before a funny thing happened, the facts started to come out.
According to documents obtained by The New York Times, the prosecutors in the case ultimately conceded that none of the evidence established force or the lack of consent and the case rested entirely on the testimony of the woman. And, the problem of course with the case resting entirely on her credibility is that the prosecutors in the case no longer believed her. For starters, Mrs. Diallo’s account of what happened during and after the alleged assault began to develop inconsistencies. Even more troubling to prosecutors was what they said was a “pattern of untruthfulness” about her past. That included a convincingly delivered story of being gang raped by soldiers in her native Guinea; she later acknowledged that she had fabricated the story, and prosecutors characterized her ability to recount a fictionalized sexual assault with complete conviction as being “fatal” to her credibility. Another issue was that she had denied that she was interested in making money from the case, despite a recorded conversation that prosecutors said captured her discussing just that with her fiancé, a detainee in an immigration jail in Arizona, shortly after the encounter in the hotel.
Of course, all of this begs the question of why not investigate prior to bringing charges, not after? Even though he was a flight risk, authorities should have waited to gather more evidence before dragging him into jail and having him publicly paraded in front of the world like a show animal.
The media also deserves to be criticized with its culture of guilty until proven innocent. The coverage in this case was overwhelming against Strauss-Kahn and all but had him convicted of these charges. Now that more of the “facts” have come out, it is the duty of the media to highlight those facts with the same vigor with which they originally reported the story. It is almost as if the media is disappointed that there will not be a trial; that their made for television drama, with the hotel maid as the heroine and the powerful and wealthy I.M.F chief as the villain, turned out to be nothing more than a he said she said with the “he” being sexually deviant and the “she” being a very convincing liar.
This case demonstrates, once again, that simply being accused of a crime does not make you guilty. It is important for all of us to live up to the lofty ideals that we have of our criminal justice system and that ALL are innocent until proven guilty.
Horace F. Hunter, Esq.
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