Jury convicts 2 ex-Vanderbilt players of raping woman
Source: AP
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A jury convicted two ex-Vanderbilt football players on Tuesday of raping a former student, rejecting claims that they were too drunk to know what they were doing and that a college culture of binge drinking and promiscuous sex should be blamed for the attack.
The jury deliberated for three hours before announcing that Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey were guilty. Batey was stoic, staring ahead and Vandenburg shook his head "no," appearing stunned as the verdict was read. His father had an outburst and abruptly left the courtroom.
The victim, who was a 21-year-old neuroscience and economics major at the time of the 2013 attack, cried as each guilty verdict was announced.
Both men were convicted of four counts of aggravated rape, one count of attempted aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. They face decades in prison when they are sentenced March 6.
Read more: http://collegefootball.ap.org/article/jury-convicts-2-ex-vanderbilt-players-raping-woman
Longer article by The Tennessean: Vanderbilt rape trial: Defendants found guilty on all charges
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)i.e., not protected by the program anymore, I didn't foresee any other verdict...
chillfactor
(7,584 posts)about time athletes paid for their ungodly behavior.....
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Such actions destroy the perpetrators life and CAN destroy the victims as well. It takes a very special and strong person to (at the very least) carry on with life without severe mental duress.
niyad
(113,552 posts)christx30
(6,241 posts)If you can't stop someone from raping out of a sense of human decency, get them to stop with threats of 15-20 years in prison.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)IF the bags of human garbage are caught and jailed. Sorry, I should have made that clear. My bad.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)I suspect?? that a lot of women can carry on with their lives...on the surface...but (naturally) are forever doomed to carry the load of what happened.
I'm not a woman, so I certainly can only guess at the pain. I like to think that I could put it behind me but I hope I'm never asked to carry around something so horrible....even knowing it's not my fault.
A part of me still says: You don't know shit. (talking about me)
niyad
(113,552 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)niyad
(113,552 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)But that's the way it should be.
niyad
(113,552 posts)BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)..
..
I actually researched this death: She said... "He is much better off without me ... I wouldn't make a good wife for anybody"
The Woman had recently been discharged from the service. Her mother said the daughter burned her discharge papers and EVERYTHING, including her uniforms, that was associated with the service. That's the Key.
I asked myself...Why would she do that??
My gut feeling is she was raped or gang raped and naturally, as most women do...not report it for fear of having to go through the bullshit that all women have to go through... especially in the service.
Agggghh. Just thinking about it is gut-wrenching. The poor woman...she never had a chance.
Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so...
niyad
(113,552 posts)sickening, almost glorying in the beauty of that photograph.
Beacool
(30,251 posts)Maybe it'll send a message to other young men that it's not OK to gang rape a girl just because she's not conscious.
If that's the current culture in colleges, then that culture needs to be changed. It's no bloody excuse to rape someone because they and the victim are drunk.
niyad
(113,552 posts)so weak-willed that they cannot think for themselves? pooooor helpless little footballers. the verdicts must have come as a shock to them.
Travelman
(708 posts)He certainly seemed to look rather astounded to me as they read off the nine charges and said "guilty" after each one.
It came as a shock to me just because the verdict came in so quickly. Sixteen charges, and the jury found them all guilty in just three hours. I haven't really followed the trial part of the case, but the evidence and testimony must have been absolutely damning.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)(referring to such a culture) a man wrote, "I spent a great amount of my college years drunk and never even thought once about raping a woman." This blame-it-on-alcohol excuse is indeed garbage.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Vanderbilt kicks the player's off the team and doesn't protect them against police investigation.
FSU protects it's QB and interfers with all investigations while continuing to play their rapist QB.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)if their program was a top-10 powerhouse competing for the national title every season...
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)--his lawyer said " he should never have taken the photos..." (and so therefore, let these dark deeds remain in the dark).
But photos is how these predatory animals are going to be stopped. When normal people see the horror of these acts, they are disgusted and outraged. This is not normal behavior.
Glad they got convicted and some in academia are finally paying attention to these campus crimes.
niyad
(113,552 posts)marions ghost
(19,841 posts)amazing how far people will go to try to cover up these atrocities.
Amy Goodman did an excellent piece yesterday on the documentary "The Hunting Ground" --about campus rape. How it is perpetrated by predatory repeat offenders:
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/28/the_hunting_ground_film_exposes_how
niyad
(113,552 posts)marions ghost
(19,841 posts)pass it on...
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)I saw this story late last week and send it to my sister (niece is at a different college but has several friends at Vanderbilt). Thankfully justice has been served here.
Ace Rothstein
(3,183 posts)...and promiscuous sex should be blamed for the attack.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Response to alp227 (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)And this was in Tennessee, too, a staunchly Republican state. That, to me at least, shows that there's hope for the rest of the nation, too.
jmowreader
(50,562 posts)Vanderbilt went 0-and-8 in the SEC last season. Since Vandy's football team is as bad as it is, it was okay to throw these guys in jail where they belong.
I have to wonder tho: would the verdict have been the same if the Commodores hadn't lost to Ole Miss 3-41 or to Mississippi State in a 51-point shutout?
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,600 posts)It's hard to imagine that any incident that begins with college athletes, or any college students, or anyone at all going out for a night of heavy drinking is going to end well.