Post by pim on Jan 10, 2013 8:40:27 GMT 11
I'm not going to put this thread up on Jody's NTB1 board because the topic will only get lost in a fog of racism when in fact if you read accounts like this www.smh.com.au/world/victims-in-delhi-rape-case-are-to-blame-defendants-lawyer-says-20130110-2ch95.html the danger is that the defendants will walk because the prosecution ends up botching the case.
I'm no lawyer but in a criminal case, from what I understand, the police declare the actual spot where the alleged offence took place to be a crime scene and it's then that the forensic people move in. Anyone else who touches anything leaves himself open to a charge of tampering with evidence.
There are a few considerations here:
1. Everyone accused of a crime, no matter how foul or heinous the crime, is entitled to a defence. In fact it's in the prosecution's interest that the accused person(s) be properly defended in order for a guilty verdict to pass the "beyond all reasonable doubt" test. Otherwise it mightn't survive an appeal. In the rape/murder case lawyers collectively refused to defend the accused and the lawyer who did volunteer to act for the defence has come under attack. That taints the prosecution right from the start.
2. Like everyone else in our society, I find abhorrent the defence lawyer's claim that "she asked to be raped and was a tart because if she'd been a good girl she'd have been at home with her mother instead of flaunting herself shamelessly in public lat at night. What that lawyer is doing is voicing opinions held and expressed publicly by politicians (many of whom have themselves been accused of rape) and religious leaders. I've no doubt this is going to come up in court and it'll be a test of the Indian court system how well it deals with this mind set. In fact this is why the case is so important within India. It's the cutting edge of the great sociological fault line where upwardly mobile middle class India with Western aspirations clashes with village India where women are supposed to live in purdah and where for centuries practised suttee (or "sati"), which meant they threw themselves - or were thrown - on their husband's funeral pyre. The shantytowns at the edges of Indian cities in which the economy of upwardly mobile India is burgeoning are full of economic refugees from village India. A bunch of shantytown males from village India lures a girl and her boyfriend from upwardly mobile urbanising India onto a "bus" and inflict all their anger and resentment on them in the most horrible way. The "she asked for it" defence is the voice of village India. Sounds horrible to us (but I remember not so long ago hearing similar attitudes expressed here in this country) but it needs to be aired so that it can be answered and dealt with by the court.
3. The male partner of the victim, himself a victim of the assault/rape/murder, has made public statements about the lack of response by passers-by and, critically, slow response time by police and subsequent jurisdictional dithering. The police themselves dispute this, but then they would, wouldn't they. The young man's public statements about police response times and dithering are certainly going to be pounced upon by the defence lawyer and so they should be.
There is a strong possibility that the rapists/murderers will be acquitted because the prosecution, through its own incompetence, fails to present a watertight case. There's a lot riding on this for India. The India that the Gillard Government - as well as the Rudd and Howard Governments before it - is seeking to build a strategic, political and economic relationship with is very much upwardly mobile urbanising India with a middle class of over 300 million. This is the India that can only grow and develop. During the course of this century this is the India which Australia can only become more aware of. We are going to gain insights into why that ocean that washes our western coastline is called the "Indian" Ocean. But this India deals with some pretty fundamental issues. Externally there's a nuclear-armed and increasingly dysfunctional Pakistan with its own issues of religious fundamentalism where medical workers vaccinating village girls are shot. And domestically Urbanising India with its middle class of 300 million has to deal with Village India of suttee and purdah with 1200 million. This trial, more than any other event of recent memory, is where those two great tectonic plates are moving and grinding against each other. There's a lot riding on both the process of the trial, as well as the outcome. It matters to us too.
I'm no lawyer but in a criminal case, from what I understand, the police declare the actual spot where the alleged offence took place to be a crime scene and it's then that the forensic people move in. Anyone else who touches anything leaves himself open to a charge of tampering with evidence.
There are a few considerations here:
1. Everyone accused of a crime, no matter how foul or heinous the crime, is entitled to a defence. In fact it's in the prosecution's interest that the accused person(s) be properly defended in order for a guilty verdict to pass the "beyond all reasonable doubt" test. Otherwise it mightn't survive an appeal. In the rape/murder case lawyers collectively refused to defend the accused and the lawyer who did volunteer to act for the defence has come under attack. That taints the prosecution right from the start.
2. Like everyone else in our society, I find abhorrent the defence lawyer's claim that "she asked to be raped and was a tart because if she'd been a good girl she'd have been at home with her mother instead of flaunting herself shamelessly in public lat at night. What that lawyer is doing is voicing opinions held and expressed publicly by politicians (many of whom have themselves been accused of rape) and religious leaders. I've no doubt this is going to come up in court and it'll be a test of the Indian court system how well it deals with this mind set. In fact this is why the case is so important within India. It's the cutting edge of the great sociological fault line where upwardly mobile middle class India with Western aspirations clashes with village India where women are supposed to live in purdah and where for centuries practised suttee (or "sati"), which meant they threw themselves - or were thrown - on their husband's funeral pyre. The shantytowns at the edges of Indian cities in which the economy of upwardly mobile India is burgeoning are full of economic refugees from village India. A bunch of shantytown males from village India lures a girl and her boyfriend from upwardly mobile urbanising India onto a "bus" and inflict all their anger and resentment on them in the most horrible way. The "she asked for it" defence is the voice of village India. Sounds horrible to us (but I remember not so long ago hearing similar attitudes expressed here in this country) but it needs to be aired so that it can be answered and dealt with by the court.
3. The male partner of the victim, himself a victim of the assault/rape/murder, has made public statements about the lack of response by passers-by and, critically, slow response time by police and subsequent jurisdictional dithering. The police themselves dispute this, but then they would, wouldn't they. The young man's public statements about police response times and dithering are certainly going to be pounced upon by the defence lawyer and so they should be.
There is a strong possibility that the rapists/murderers will be acquitted because the prosecution, through its own incompetence, fails to present a watertight case. There's a lot riding on this for India. The India that the Gillard Government - as well as the Rudd and Howard Governments before it - is seeking to build a strategic, political and economic relationship with is very much upwardly mobile urbanising India with a middle class of over 300 million. This is the India that can only grow and develop. During the course of this century this is the India which Australia can only become more aware of. We are going to gain insights into why that ocean that washes our western coastline is called the "Indian" Ocean. But this India deals with some pretty fundamental issues. Externally there's a nuclear-armed and increasingly dysfunctional Pakistan with its own issues of religious fundamentalism where medical workers vaccinating village girls are shot. And domestically Urbanising India with its middle class of 300 million has to deal with Village India of suttee and purdah with 1200 million. This trial, more than any other event of recent memory, is where those two great tectonic plates are moving and grinding against each other. There's a lot riding on both the process of the trial, as well as the outcome. It matters to us too.
