rcj (12/06/82)
Last night (Dec. 5) I saw a TV program called "Farber!" hosted by journa-
list Barry Farber. It was billed as a controversial issues forum and, if
last night's show was anything near typical, then never have I seen truer
advertising!! The topic of the show was the question "Are rape laws tough
enough". Speaking for the con was singer Connie Francis, who seems to have
made this her full-time occupation for a while. For the pro was a young
public defender from Broome? County, NY (I am embarrassed to admit that
I don't remember his name). Also present to add to the flames were a
former United States Congresswoman from NY who is now the DA in the county
that contains Brooklyn, a Dr. Berlin from Johns Hopkins who is a psycho-
therapist specializing in the treatment of rapists, and Muggable Mary (the
#1 decoy for the NYPD for years).
Ms. Francis has done a LOT for rape victims in legal and police
circles, but she has got to be the most irritating, rudest person I have
ever seen on a talk show. Her ideas are also extremely radical. She
supports a bill that the Attorney General has before Congress that would
abolish the "guilty by reason of insanity" plea and replace it with a
"guilty but insane" plea that would result in the incarceration of the
mentally ill in an institution (mental, not penal) until they were pro-
nounced cured, at which point they would be immediately hauled back into
court to be sentenced for the crime that they commited while insane!!!!
She did and said a lot of other REALLY stupid things on the show,
but I won't go into them here. Here's a couple of things that she has
done:
Convinced the National Chiefs of Police at a meeting in Atlanta
to post a 35-point poster of VICTIM'S rights in each stationhouse
and to provide each victim with a printed card of them as well.
Was instrumental in the repeal of the NY state "Earnest Resistance"
law, that would not let a woman charge a man of rape unless she
could prove that she earnestly resisted the attack. (This goes
180 degrees against the advice to women from most rape prevention
and crisis centers).
Is campaigning to use Dallas, TX as a model due to their program
of shuttling all rape victims to one area hospital which has a
special rape unit set up to properly record and safeguard evidence
and to give victims treatment and counseling BEFORE police
questioning.
What I would like from u out there in net.land is:
1. What are ur feelings on the insanity plea?
2. What are ur feelings on rape laws today?
3. Do you have any pet peeves regarding laws that are outdated, bigoted,
or downright ridiculous?
Flames to /dev/null, feel free to send mail to me rather than post to the
net to relieve net congestion. DO NOT PUT THIS IN MISC, PLEASE!! We have
the group net.politics, let's use it and avoid clogging misc or general.
Thanks (and of course I'll summarize responses if I get any)
Curtis Jackson (...!floyd!burl!rcj)