December 1, 2021
"My goal in 1982 was justice – not to perpetuate injustice. And certainly not to forever, and irreparably, alter a young man’s life by the very crime that had altered mine."
"I am grateful that Mr Broadwater has finally been vindicated, but the fact remains that 40 years ago, he became another young Black man brutalized by our flawed legal system. I will forever be sorry for what was done to him.... It has taken me these past eight days to comprehend how this could have happened.... I will continue to struggle with the role that I unwittingly played within a system that sent an innocent man to jail. I will also grapple with the fact that my rapist will, in all likelihood, never be known, may have gone on to rape other women, and certainly will never serve the time in prison that Mr Broadwater did.”
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45 comments:
She has an interesting disassociation from the event. "...what was done to him..." Or "how this could have happened to him."
It's as if she had nothing to do with it. Didn't she point him out of a lineup? Didn't she finger him?
I can understand how, through the shock and terror, not being clear about the face of the attacker. But to point at someone and say 'that's the one' when not sure? I'd say "grappling" with it is a start.
My view of Ms. Sebold and her apology is dependent on whether her testimony against Broadwater was driven by the hair analysis. If so, then fine, it's the system's fault. But if not, then this apology is just lame attempt to dodge responsibility. The system may still be at fault, but she is too. And she hasn't accepted her part here.
If anyone knew what a small role rape victims actually play in stranger rape cases, they would leave her the hell alone.
Oprah Winfrey coordinated with Al Sharpton to put the screw to the Central Park Jogger by announcing the false acquittals of her rapists while she was on air with Oprah. And the jogger didn’t even identify anyone, as she was beaten into a coma and has no memory of the event. That is pure evil, pure race hatred from Oprah and Morgenthau. Not a coincidence.
Seebold’s misidentification would have ended the case if the police and prosecutors didn’t have other stuff on the offender.
She’s just a fall guy. Leave her the fuck alone. She had no control over the investigation or the prosecution. Leave her alone.
Role that she unwittingly played?
Hells bells! She was the complaining witness!
The jury ought to have taken the unreliability of witness identification into account, especially unreliable across race (all x's look alike).
The racial score is a tie, however, since one innocent black was imprisoned and one guilty black was left free.
I will continue to struggle with the role that I unwittingly played within a system that sent an innocent man to jail.
She should go to jail for as long as Broadwater did.
I'm glad she did this. But I'll never understand the construction "my rapist," "my bully," "my stalker." Is it supposed to be some kind of "claiming power" or something? To me it just sounds like the victims taking the blame for what happened to them.
(And I deliberately said "victims" so I could use "them" grammatically without either having to degrade English usage or having to choose a gendered pronoun.)
The apology was too long. Everything after "..finally been vindicated" should have been left on the cutting room floor. I suspect lawyers insisted.
Quaestor applauds Jamie.
However, next time, use gendered pronouns ad libitum. Explode the heads that richly deserve exploding.
In an unrelated story, did you hear the one about the lady NASA astronaut who is being prosecuted by the Russians for drilling a hole in the space station so that the mission would have to be aborted, after she broke up with her boyfriend?
Did you hear the one about how the navy vessel with sensory systems so advanced that it could detect a swimmer in the water at two miles, collided with a freighter because the two female officers who were on duty on the bridge were not speaking to each other?
"How do you write women so well...." We all know the rest of the quote.
"Didn't she point him out of a lineup? Didn't she finger him?"
No. She failed to pick him out. She picked some other guy.
I shouldn't say "failed."
It wasn't him and she didn't pick him.
But somehow she testified against him.
" But I'll never understand the construction "my rapist," "my bully," "my stalker." Is it supposed to be some kind of "claiming power" or something?"
It's no harder to understand than "my enemy."
another young Black man brutalized ..........(by her testimony)
what was done to him ........................(by her testimony)
to comprehend how this could have happened...(by her testimony)
the role that I unwittingly played ..........(by her testimony)
The conviction had relied heavily on Sebold's testimony, as well as on microscopic hair analysis, a forensic technique the United States Department of Justice later found to be unreliable.[21]
At the police lineup, which included Broadwater, Sebold had identified a different person as her rapist. When police told her she had picked out the "wrong person", she said the two men looked "almost identical".[21]
Some people did something.
well, mistakes happen. First, it was an actual rape. Or as Whoppi called it, rape rape. And this doesn't seem to be someone deliberately accusing an innocent man. She was raped by a young black man, and she thought he was one. One good thing about the 21st Century is we know have DNA evidence.
I assume the innocent man was unlucky enough not to have an alibi for the time of the attack. further, microscopic hair analysis is NOT "junk science". Whatever that means. Whenever a libtard newspapers talks about Science, get out your "fact checker".
"he became another young Black man brutalized by our flawed legal system."
Vomitous. She can dismiss wrecking his life by hiding behind a trope. Your victimhood is null when you use it to create other victims.
Ann Althouse said...
It wasn't him and she didn't pick him.
But somehow she testified against him.
From what I read; she didn't pick him out of the initial line up, but saw him on the street sometime later and notified the police. That makes the whole thing far, far worse than it sounds like on the surface.
What? So fucking passive. She didn't do anything, it was the racist system.
Besides, was it even rape-rape?
How much did the police press her to change her mind about who raped her? They probably had good circumstantial evidence on the innocent man and nothing specific on the guy she fingered initially. Likely abused twice, by the real perp and by the state.
DNA testing has gone a long way to cure mistakes made by traumatized victims.
Sebolds failure to identify Broadwater in the lineup caused the prosecutors to make up the bullshit hair evidence. Because Sebold believed the bogus evidence she was willing to finger Broadwater from the stand. The folks who are truly responsible for the injustice are the corrupt criminals of the justice system whom are protected by sovereign immunity.
I agree with Tina, have some compassion for the woman who was raped then duped by exploiting her primal desire for justice into helping to send the wrong guy to prison.
Cases like this are why I am against the death penalty.
Blogger Achilles said...
I will continue to struggle with the role that I unwittingly played within a system that sent an innocent man to jail.
She should go to jail for as long as Broadwater did.
12/1/21, 7:58 AM
We just witnessed in the Rittenhouse trial how corrupt a DA can be when he wants a conviction. Don't blame the victim.
Those black men all look alike so it was understandable that she accused him.
Well, that's mighty white of her!
Repulsive.
Another woman who just KNEW.
But, but, it was the terrible system.
Lucky details how as an 18-year-old Sebold was raped and beaten inside a tunnel near her university campus. Later, Sebold writes of how she saw a Black man in the street and was convinced he was her attacker. “He was smiling as he approached. He recognised me. It was a stroll in the park to him; he had met an acquaintance on the street. “‘Hey, girl,’ he said. ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’” Sebold writes. “I looked directly at him. Knew his face had been the face over me in the tunnel.”
You know, the Central Park rapists got "exonerated" too. Exoneration seems to be a very popular course in America's law schools.
“It has taken me these past eight days to comprehend how this could have happened.”
Really? Since Broadwater has been maintaining is innocence all along, one would think Sebold has been contemplating whether he really was guilty for more than eight days.
Here’s how Wikipedia describes the circumstances of Broadwater becoming a suspect in the rape:
“After five months of no leads by the police, Sebold was walking down a sidewalk near the Syracuse campus when she saw a black man whom she believed to be the person who raped her. In Lucky, she wrote that the man had approached her, saying "Hey, girl. Don't I know you from somewhere?", and that she had recognized his face from the attack. She notified police, who were initially unable to find the man she had encountered. After an officer suggested the man might have been Anthony Broadwater, who had reportedly been seen in the area, police arrested and charged Broadwater.“
I wonder how the story was told differently in the script for the Lucky movie that aroused the producer’s suspicions. We don’t know yet in what ways Sebold or her scriptwriter changed her story, or what she said in support of her story in the discussions she had with the producer over his concerns with her story. Presumably, the script made Broadwater look more guilty than the original telling. Again, that all happened more than eight days before Sebold issued her statement.
---She’s just a fall guy. Leave her the fuck alone. She had no control over the investigation or the prosecution. Leave her alone. [Tina Trent]
A fall guy?
She couldn't pick him out of a lineup. Not just couldn't pick him out; she picked out someone else.
Then she identified him in court. What did she tell herself to enable herself to make that ID?
This is a sad case. But a fall guy she is not.
I'd be interested to know if she made any public comments regarding the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
Shorter Sebold: "Not my fault."
Thanks for the clarification. A large mistake on my part and it changes my comment to 'Nevermind'.
I'm sympathetic to her. She not only got raped but now she herself has ruined an innocent man's life. This has to be tough to live with. Maybe even tougher than the original crime. I hope she can find some wiggle room in her conscience. The letter is a first attempt. The original rapist was the prime mover in this tragedy, and, were I advising God on the day of the Last Judgement, I would put most of the blame and guilt on the rapist and send him to Hell.....I don't think she'll find material here for another novel. It's far easier to write about the crimes done to us than the sins we have perped on the world. There were lots of gulag and concentration camp guards, and not one of them has ever written a novel or memoir about his experiences....If she had misidentified a white rapist, I don't think she would have received this much opprobrium. If you get raped by a Black man, it's probably best to just keep quiet about it. I'm thinking of that white college student who got raped by the Hollywood director and his actor friend. When she filed charges, he complained that she had simply changed her mind and that the charges were racially motivated. She went on to commit suicide. His career hit a bump after news of this came out, but he's back working again.
Her apology is bullshit. She's using passive voice throughout. She IDed him on the street. She IDed him in court.
A lot of 'fingering' going on in these comments.
For decorum's sake I prefer, 'she put him in the frame.'
I have avoided looking deeper into this story until now, but I am not sure she owes Broadwater an apology. She didn't "finger" him or put him in the frame, the investigators and the prosecution did that as far as I can tell. Am I wrong here? What actions, exactly, did she take that led to Broadwater being arrested and tried?
"From what I read; she didn't pick him out of the initial line up, but saw him on the street sometime later and notified the police. That makes the whole thing far, far worse than it sounds like on the surface."
This I didn't know, and it wasn't shown in my initial searches.
William, I almost always enjoy reading your comments. Even if you're just another deplorable with a tendency to violence, as our hostess has described us.
But this time I disagree.
"I am grateful that Mr Broadwater has finally been vindicated, but the fact remains that 40 years ago, he became another young Black man brutalized by our flawed legal system."
Is there any word in there that you believe? A single one?
Is she "grateful"? Was he "another young black man," aka an innocent guy? Was he "brutalized by our flawed legal system"?
Well, maybe on that last. But only because she ID's two different guys for her rape. Which occurred in a tunnel, did I pick up that fact correctly above? The details were such that a movie producer stopped producing the movie of her memoir and ended up hiring a private detective to find out what was wrong with her story.
If I were advising God on your last day of judgment William I would tell him to send you to the hot place for being an unrepentant racist. I am certain that Jesus is in agreement with me on this, have no doubt.
Her letter was a first attempt, a rough draft. A terrible injustice was done, and she was an active participant in that injustice. I think her testimony was given in good faith, but she was wrong and an innocent man's life was ruined. That's hard to live with. She's not the real villain of this piece, but there's no way that even a talented writer can find a narrative that makes her look good. The defining trauma of her life has now become someone else's story of victimization. All this must be hard to process. I wish her well, but the moral of the story is that there is no moral and life here on earth is endlessly fucked up......Howard, I admire your brave effort to overcome your past sins and to move forward with your life.. I will continue to pray for you and be assured that on Judgement Day I will put in a good word with the Lord.
Her letter was a first attempt, a rough draft. A terrible injustice was done, and she was an active participant in that injustice. I think her testimony was given in good faith, but she was wrong and an innocent man's life was ruined. That's hard to live with. She's not the real villain of this piece, but there's no way that even a talented writer can find a narrative that makes her look good. The defining trauma of her life has now become someone else's story of victimization. All this must be hard to process. I wish her well, but the moral of the story is that there is no moral and life here on earth is endlessly fucked up......Howard, I admire your brave effort to overcome your past sins and to move forward with your life.. I will continue to pray for you and be assured that on Judgement Day I will put in a good word with the Lord.
We do not have a flawed legal system. We have flawed participants in the legal system.
When you can't stand placing blame on human beings who have agency, you blame an inert object or a system. And when you can't find actual perpetrators, you blame a group. Thus, we blame guns, systemic racism, and white people.
This woman is spinning hard to avoid taking blame. Why? She seems to feel guilt but is unwilling to admit it.
Jupiter,
You know, the Central Park rapists got "exonerated" too. Exoneration seems to be a very popular course in America's law schools.
Yes. The funny thing about the "Central Park Five" is that they were exonerated for the rape of the jogger b/c . . . they were somewhere else in Central Park at the time, beating up a homeless man. So, walkies on the jogger charge! But you're no bloody innocents.
rhhardin-"The racial score is a tie, however, since one innocent black was imprisoned and one guilty black was left free."
Spoken like a true racist.
As long as some black guy paid all is good.
That is not justice. That is vengeance. Exactly what Alice Sebold wanted. Vengeance. She expressed that several times in her book. Particularly in her poem about raping him with a knife.
As for the "apology", the "I'm sorry what they did to you but I am in no way responsible for, even though I lied under oath and bragged about it my book, and yeah, I lied about you having a criminal record, but hey, it's a shame what THEY did to you" apology? It seems rather underwhelming. "Sure they imprisoned the wrong man but I am in no way responsible for that, or for any woman the real rapist might have raped. Nope. Not my fault. I got my vengeance". I'm good now.
No wonder she called it "Lucky".
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