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Susan J. Lanager
Ms. Aughenbaugh
English 12
23 March 2016
Individuals Who Report False Rape Should be tried in a Court of Law
Rape is a serious allegation. A person is being forced against their will to perform acts
they do not want to. It is a psychological and physical offense. These allegations should not be
taken lightly. However, what happens when a person is craving attention? Or when an individual
is angry with someone? How far will that person venture to get revenge? Would they scream
rape to punish those they feel is responsible? When women and men cry wolf who is the true
victim?
On a cool, spring day in March 1931, two white women hitched a ride on a freight train
in

Alabama in the hopes of finding work in a neighboring state. When authorities

stopped the train some time later, both women, fearing arrest for violating the Mann Act,
which prohibited transporting even willing women across state lines for illicit purposes,
told police that nine black men who were also scattered along the train had raped them
(Dorr).
The accused are not only being punished for an act they had not committed they have the
chance of spending years wasted in a jail cell. These men and women who are being pushed
under the bus are able to be sentenced to 55 years or even more for that crime. As a national
Statistic 2 of 8 of all rapes are falsely reported. This number seems meniscal, however, if you

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observe the number of rapes reported in a years time, the number suddenly finds itself to be
alarming. Roughly every two years 787,000 women are raped and if you do the calculations
157,400 roughly done are false. then an assault did in fact occur over 90 percent of the time. That
interpretation is wrong. then an assault did in fact occur over 90 percent of the time. That
interpretation is wrong (Richwine).
An estimated 1% of people who are put in prison are innocent. This number seems small,
however, this number calculates to 20,000 innocent people in jail who are not guilty. If any
individual who reports a false claim should be held responsible for the repercussions. This
innocent person is being labeled as a criminal, as a sexual predator, as a deviant. That individual
will never be seen the same way from anyone who learns of the allegations. The time spent
suffering and potentially even time spent in prison should be met with serious punishment on the
side of the accuser.
Men and women who are accused for these crimes are in danger of aggravated action
from people who believe the accusers. Rape is a serious crime and often people feel that it should
be met with a more serious crime, murder. People who accuse others of rape often do so in order
to receive sympathy or even to exact vengeance on the individual for an unrelated crime. These
are some true cases of false rape allegations leading to the accused deaths. His own story was a
messy affair. James says his wife accused him of rape as an added bargaining chip in ongoing
divorce proceedings: "She told me to back off in the family courts - she was losing the case to
have residency of our children. I said I wouldn't. So she went down to the local police station and
alleged that she'd been repeatedly raped by me during our marriage" (Wells).

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Wesley Lord was the cousin of Stine, a man known to violence, and when Stines
girlfriend had cheated fear is what got the false rape allegation be made. Vasquez, Stines
girlfriend, had told Stine that she had been raped by Lord. She also knew that Stine had a
history of violence when she lied and told him that 37-year-old Wesley Lord who was also
Stines cousin raped her at a the Extended Stay Hotel in Fairbanks (Ross). When he had
learned this be lured his cousin into a motel room and brutally beat him with the help of
Vasquez.
A man had been accused of raping a young woman and when a group of by-standers
heard rape they took action. They ganged up on the man and beat him. The group then beat him
to death. The group even included the girls own father. Latiqwa Mayes was enraged that her
victim Donald Robinson had not received a stricter sentence for breaking into her room and
assaulting her friend at a boardinghouse (De Graaf). The man was taken to the hospital and
later died from his injuries. Joshua Insley, defending, argued Robinson was a dangerous sex
offender that should have been off the streets and violated his parole (De Graff).
The accused, depending on if the case goes to court can spend many years in jail. This
time spent is unnecessary and wastes resources for the prison that could be used on true guilty
criminals. It wastes innocent lives and allows a guilty person to walk the streets. Mark Weiner is
a perfect example as to how false rape convictions ruin peoples lives.
Weiner was accused of abducting a woman in December 2012. Last month, a judge
sentenced him last to two decades in prison despite hearing new evidence earlier this spring that
brought the alleged victim's testimony into question (Weiner Court Ruling Prompts War of
Words Over How Case Was Handled). Mark Weiner had been driving home when he had seen

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a young woman walking all alone and thought he would be a kind individual and offer her a ride
home. What he did not know was that she had just had an argument with her boyfriend and
wanted him to feel sympathy and worry for her. She had taken her phone and was sending texts
to her boyfriend posing as her kidnapper. The messages were threatening and caused her
boyfriend to call the cops. When the cops went to check on her, she had no signs of rape or
bruises that would indicate being hit and assaulted. None the less, the police soon arrested Mark
and tried him for rape. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison and when his accuser was caught
selling cocaine he was then released due to her unreliability.
He wasted eight years of his life in prison for a crime that he did not commit. Her texts
suggested that she was the kidnapper; however, they convicted him anyway and threw him
behind bars. His time spent rotting in jail could have been spent with his mother and his
daughter. Instead a young woman he only met once screams rape and even though there is lack
of evidence, we point fingers and close the door on an innocent mans future.
Luis Vargas was a normal man and one day a young woman was raped and then he
became the blame of the whole ordeal. He was sentenced to prison time and when DNA
evidence was tested again they had found that he was not to blame, however, the notorious tear
drop rapist was to blame and he was released after wasting 16 years of his life behind bars.
Though the young woman was truly assaulted he was still thrown behind bars before he was
given a truly fair trial. You can sentence me to all the years you want, he warned a judge in
1999, but as far as Im concerned ... that individual that really did these crimes might really be
raping someone out there (Gerber). I still feel a lot of anger, Vargas mother, Blanca Alatorre,
said in Spanish outside the courtroom. This cant happen to other people. It just cant. Its
injustice (Gerber).

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Taxes are utilized to keep many of the systems, cops, hospitals, libraries, schools, etc.,
that we as a society rely on. How does it feel to know that most of the resources we rely on are
being wasted on false crimes? Is it a problem? 20% of taxes go toward the protection system and
if most of it is used for true cases then it should not be a problem but if close to 30% of the
crimes reported are false and then resources are being wasted on fake problems, then where do
we draw the line? Another 16 percent of the budget, or $602 billion, paid for defense and
security-related international activities (Policy Basics: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars
Go?). Rough estimates of 1% of all people in jail are innocent. This number seems small and
not a problem, truth is if you do an estimate it is up to about 20,000 innocent people rotting in
jail. Does that number bother you? We will never know for sure, but the few studies that have
been done estimate that between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent (for
context, if just 1% of all prisoners are innocent, that would mean that more than 20,000 innocent
people are in prison) (How Many Innocent People are There in Prison?). How would you
feel if that was someone, you loved dearly wasting away in jail for a crime he or she did not
commit?
Some will argue that it is better to put away one innocent person for 100 guilty. That is
wrong. It blocks up the jails and wastes the taxes that are provided to keep the prisons running.
One soul wasted is one too many. The system should focus on the guilty not the innocent. The
system and the ones who help find the answer should do their job and find the truth behind the
alleged crime. What if that was you? What if you had to watch as you were screamed at and
called a rapist or a murder for a crime you never committed. What if you had to watch your
family wept as the court ruled guilty? One life is one life too many.

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Reporting a false rape is breaking the law. If you make a false report that is one law
broken. If you lie in a court of law, that is perjury; which is unlawfully lying in a court of law
after taking an oath. Perjury is a serious offense which usually would be met with serious
repercussions. The men who are sent to jail have a large chance of being in danger once they are
put in jail.
Men who are seen as rapists are in danger of serious injury or assault once they are in jail.
They have the chance of being raped themselves. These is occurrences, unfortunately, happens
often. The men have a chance of being murdered. Many men in prison feel that a rapist should be
murdered because they are sick. They have the danger of being assaulted which is very
common. The guards in the prison, which sadly occurs very often and will happen even if the
men and women have committed something small, can neglect the convicted.
The sentence can ruin their lives. The accused will be labeled as a sex offender and a
deviant for the rest of their lives. Once the accused is released from prison they will have a very
hard time finding a job. Once released, they can have trouble keeping a relationship of any kind.
They have been labeled as sick and sadistic for the rest of their lives.
The system should focus on the cases that have true evidence. If there is a lack of
evidence and holes in the story the case should be shortly investigated. The police should find
the story from both sides, get physical evidence, once they have acquired evidence they should
decide if the case is truly something to go on and not just trust the women because that is sexist.
Individuals who report false rape or false crimes more generally, depending on the severity of the
convicted the accuser needs to be tried in a court. The sufferings of the accused should not go
unmet, the accused should be made to be punished for their sufferings.

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Works Cited
De Graaf, Mia. Woman Jailed for Six Years After She Falsely Screamed Rape Prompting Mob
- Including Her Own Father - to Chase Down Innocent Man and Beat Him to DEATH.
DailyMail. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 1 November 2016. Web. 16 March 2016.
Dorr, Lisa Lindquist. "The University of North Carolina Press." UNC Press. The University of
North Carolina Press, 2004. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Fenton, Reuven. Top Reasons People are Falsely Imprisoned. New York Post. NYP Holdings,
Inc. 15 November 2015. Web. 16 March 2016.
Gerber, Marisa and Richard, Winton. Man in prison for 16 Years in 'Teardrop rapist' Case has
Conviction Tossed. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. 23 November 2015. Web. 16
March 2016.
How Many Innocent People are There in Prison? Innocence Project. Innocence Project.org,
2015 Web. 16 March 2016.
Lee, Harper. "Chapters 23-25." To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960. 291-319.
Print.
McArdle, Megan. How Many Rape Reports Are False? BloombergView. Bloomberg L.P. 19
September 2014. Web. 16 March 16, 2016.

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Policy Basics: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go? Center on Budget and Policy
Properties. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 4 March 2016. Web. 16 March 2016.
Richwine, Jason. That Only 2 to 8 of Rape Accusations Are False Stats is Extremely
Misleading. Nation Review. N.p., 6 April 2016. Web. 11 April 2016.
Ross, Chuck. False Rape Accusation Leads To Alaska Mans Beating Death. The Daily Caller.
The Daily Caller., 1 Aug. 2016. Web. 16 March 2016
Weiner Court Ruling Prompts War of Words Over How Case Was Handled. NBC29. Frankly
Media and WVIR. 15 July 2015. Web. 16 March 2016.
Wells, Johnathan. Guilty until proven guilty Life After a False Rape Accusation. N.p., 28
October 2015. Web. 11 April 2016.

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