I really feel for this guy. What a tragedy. This is why many men don't enter teaching and fields like it.

The ever-blogging Instapundit recently attended a session about abusive prosecutors.

the kind of misconduct for which Nifong was disbarred and punished is committed regularly by prosecutors who almost always get off scot-free even when it's exposed. We really need a better mechanism for policing prosecutorial misconduct, and it's not clear what that should be -- independent audits of cases by a sort of inspector general? I'm not sure.

We should certainly prosecute false accusers. We should also prosecute the prosecutors, if they break the law. The bar should sanction prosecutors, if they violate professional standards.

I live in Dallas, TX. We have released dozens and dozens of men wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in this State. Most of them were convicted under a single prosecutor from this city. He's still a free man. No charges. Nothing. It's outrageous.

Amy, thanks for your attention to this issue. You are admirably consistent.

Thanks, and I agree about prosecutors. By the way, I suggest going to the Dallas New Times paper and suggesting they do the story.

I agree about the New Times angle, they are the only paper in AZ which bothers to inform people of the insane shit Arpio is trying to pull.

Recently he arrested food vendors(brown ones of course) mid mornig, and then waited until after sun down to check the carts for health code violations. I wonder how 8 hours in the sunlight with on one adding ice to keep the food chilled will effect the outcome?

Ms. Jeffrey's -- who is definitely showing a pattern -- should be sitting in jail for sure. She needs to be stopped. I don't know the law well enough to know if the circumstancial evidence is enough for a criminal trial but, man, at least, turn it around on her and sue her.

And the other chick entered a guilty plea but gets a slapped on the wrist for destroying someone's life. Definitely, that needs to carry a harsher sentence.

Most of the grown men/fathers I know say bluntly, "I will never coach/teach/mentor/chaperone gals or young boys unless they are my own kids or close relatives. Too risky. Lots of crazy people out there making shit up, and who will believe the guy in those situations?"

It is like the doppleganger society of those rigid societies where the women are not allowed in the company of men not in their families.

Not that I am in ANY way in favor of thest two women, but for the first situation, I'm not sure that jail time is the proper punishment. Not that I think that she should get off scott-free, but how is that going to help this poor man get his life back? I don't know what a proper punishment would be, but I'm with Ahmed that a good start would be naming her in every newspaper and TV station. Maybe if she were shamed enough it would discourge other people from doing the same thing. I know if my daughter pulled something like that I would be completely humilitated.

The second case is completely stupid. They've taken the desire to not put the victim on trial to ridiculous lengths. It's one thing not to use a woman's sexual history as a weapon (she's had sex in the past, therefore she was asking for it) and quite another not to be able to show that she has a history of perjury and was using this "assault" as the basis of a multi-million civil suit. For this, jail time is justified for the fraud involved.

I'm not sure that jail time is the proper punishment. Not that I think that she should get off scott-free, but how is that going to help this poor man get his life back? - Kristyle

You could make the same argument for all non violent felonies like theft, fraud, extortion and blackmailing

I see only two acceptable options for someone who would lie rape for personal profit, given the obscene tilting of the law in favor of "protecting the victim".

1) Public humiliation - a stint in the stocks with a sign explaining the heinous nature of the offense, and maybe a bucket of rotten tomatoes.

2) Death. Or, if you think that's too severe, then a penalty not to exceed that which would have been imposed upon the falsely accused had conviction been secured against him.

Either way, a lesson must be taught. You cannot game the system and destroy the lives of others for your own benefit.

Spartee is absolutely right.

P.S. The Charlottesville paper C-Ville dropped me after I wrote this column, although the editor says the complaints about it weren't why:

http://www.advicegoddess.com/ag-column-archives/2007/05/diddle-he-or-di.html

It happens all over: Jury acquits Gupta of fondling former patients

Defense attorneys questioned the motivations of the former patients. One of the alleged victims filed a $5 million lawsuit against Gupta, which she dismissed in July 2006. Defense attorneys said two others clashed with Gupta after he caught them violating their narcotics agreements with Gupta's practice, and the fourth unsuccessfully sought a letter from Gupta stating that she could not work, because she wanted to avoid a child support obligation.

Luckily the Pain Management Associates doctors group he works for has said they will do everything in their power to set things right.

"Not that I think that she should get off scott-free, but how is that going to help this poor man get his life back?"

I don't think anything is going to help him, but if her punishment is more severe, it might help the next guy. If it was widely publicized that the false accusation led to her going to jail for a few years, the next youg woman might think twice before ruining a guy's life.

This is from Wikipedia:

"General or indirect deterrence focuses on general prevention of crime by making examples of specific deviants. The individual actor is not the focus of the attempt at behavioral change, but rather receives punishment in public view in order to deter other individuals from deviance in the future. The argument that deterrence, rather than retribution, is the main justification for punishment is a hallmark of the rational choice theory and can be traced to Beccaria and Bentham."

"P.S. The Charlottesville paper C-Ville dropped me after I wrote this column, although the editor says the complaints about it weren't why: "

There seems to be more of this hyper-protectiveness towards women in the South. Come to think of it, of course there is. This is the false rape lynch mob mentality that they perfected.

I completely disagree, Amy. If we prosecute women who lie about being raped there will be a chilling effect. As a result, other women will be afraid to lie about being raped. This will further empower the oppressors.

If one innocent man has his reputation ruined, or is sent to prison, then its worth it.

"If one innocent man has his reputation ruined, or is sent to prison, then its worth it."

The whole basis of our justice system is laid around the idea of protecting the inncent from injustice.

Our particular legal system says it is better that 10 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man be in prison.

We do need to protect the rights of innocent men more fiercely than we presently do.

Part of the problem is that when the accusation comes out, there are immediate reprecussions, all negative. Innocent until proven guilty occurs ONLY in the court room. In the public mind, arrest or accusation alone can equal guilt.

Thus resulting in:

Loss of employment
Loss of children
Loss of family/friends
Loss of reputation
Regular harassment, not only of the accused, but of all those connected with the accused, from children to parents
And of course, loss of FREEDOM if falsely convicted.

By the way, we want women to be afraid of lying about rape. I'm going to assume though, that you made a mistake in your statement, and meant that they'll be afraid of being charged after a failed prosecution.

You don't guarantee justice for anyone when you claim one set of victims is more important than another.

If you want to deter this kind of crime, and rectify it, in one fell swoop the solution is simple.

Every news agency that covered the accusation, would have to print a retraction story as large as the accusation, no little retraction blurb in a corner, they too, bear responsibility.

Every false accuser should be mandated to go on t.v. and admit to the world that they lied.
They should then be made to wear a giant sandwich sign screaming at the top of their lungs that they lied about their accuser, and hand out rotten tomatos to be thrown at themselves. They'd then have to make a personal apology to everyone connected to the accuser, from employer to daughter.

That would probably only have to happen once for the rest of the would be liars to get the point.

rob, tom was obviously being sarcastic

My parents would have beaten me almost to death. "Almost" because I'd need to live to perform the 30 years of indentured servitude he and his family would be entitled to for the harm I'd done them.

The spring just before my sixth birthday I snuck into a total strangers' garden and picked some tulips and daffodils for Mother's Day. Stole them, let's be honest. Then I lied to my parents about where I got them. When I finally confessed my folks marched me down the street and had me introduce myself to the lady of the house and apologize profusely. I suspect the only reason I'm not still doing yard work for her is because we moved to another country. Its a lesson that's stuck with me for life.

Maybe my folks could adopt this little cow?

I just love your parents, cat'sp.

I remember after my mother left my father we lived at my aunts place for a little over a year. The woman next dor has a wonderful backyard garden, and a complete asshole of a son(almost 20) who constsntly harrased my cousins, myself, my 3 yr old sister and was constsnly talking shit about my mother for getting a divorce.

One day my cousin Colby(5) and I(5 as well) jumped the backyard fence and totally trashed this woman's backyard.

Her son came tearing out of her house with a hockey stick, and we scrambled back over the fence.

After each haveing a wooden spoon broken over our asses we were marched next door, made to apologise and then clean up her yard and replant her flowers.

We were threatened to do 2 hours (an eternity at that age) of work over at her house every day for the rest of the summer. But durring the backyard clean up she figured out why we had done it. Dont know if she overheard my cousin and I complaining, or if my om and aunt talked to her or if it was something her son said.

All I know is one moment everyone was watching my cousin and I cleaning and the next moent this 5'2" 50yr old lady grabs the hockey stick out of her sons hands and starts whacking him(6 foot something) on the ass with it.

My cousin and I were given a reprive from working for her for the rest of the summer, and on the way back over to my aunts place she(my aunt) said "It just goes to show you boys, it doesnt matter how big you get or how old we are, we will always get you if you do something bad"

That son of hers never said a word to any of us ever again and we never jumped the back yard fence after that. We managed to get ino all sorts of other trouble though - I remember one time when my cousin thought it would be funny to urinate on the wasps nest up in the tree. He didnt think it was quite so funny when they swarmed him causing him to fall nearly twenty feet to the ground.

God those were good times

If Rabinowitz wrote for the LAT, you just know that that story would have been all about poor Christine Jeffreys suffered.

I agree, Robert. All the news outlets that picked up the story, bleated it endlessly day in and day out, and perhaps sensationalized it, should be required to air the other side of the story for an equal amount of time.

The woman should be named.

Amy, I just read Diddle He Or Didn’t He?

Frakkin' brilliantly done.

Robert, great idea! Make the freaking media eat crow when they oversensationalize and it turns out they were wrong, wrong, wrong!

Can we start with Oprah?

Tom says :I completely disagree, Amy. If we prosecute women who lie about being raped there will be a chilling effect. As a result, other women will be afraid to lie about being raped. This will further empower the oppressors.

If one innocent man has his reputation ruined, or is sent to prison, then its worth it.

WolfmanMac says: You deserve to wake up screaming every night for the rest of your life.