Smith Cleared Of Charges In PI Rape Case

Originally — given a lack of any other facts — I thought that there was a 50% chance that politics, and not evidence, was the reason why Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was cleared of all charges after being convicted of raping a drunk Filipino girl in a van outside a nightclub. I read now that it was the Court of Appeals in Manila who pondered the evidence and decided that a jury could not have arrived at a rape conviction without harboring reasonable doubt... a requirement for conviction.

I couldn't agree more.

Women bear the burden of all marks and remnants of sexual encounters... whether tender, passionate, or violent. However, when those marks can come from either passion or violence, they must become nugatory evidence when determining guilt in the charge of rape. When the only primary evidence left to ponder is the two parties' state of mind, and the unwitnessed and unprovable actions they claim to have taken, and words they claim to have spoken, by definition doubt must exist. Further, when actions preceding the encounter itself that are witnessed and provable demonstrate two people displaying more than a passing interest in having sex with each other, that doubt has to increase even more.

Did the rape not happen? I don't claim that. I claim to not know. I claim that anybody other than the two parties involved can not know based on the evidence that was presented at trial. That's obviously a sad fact for Nicole if indeed she was raped as she claimed, but that is the way that a logical and fair justice system works. It may occasionally not be fair to one, but it is always fair to many.

Regardless of the method of our arrival at the coda of The Rape of Nicole, the political sore spots — rubbed rough by angry protesters and jingoistic cries to chase the Yankee Imperialists out — have been soothed by the convenient expunging of Smith's record, and victim Nicole is enjoying suburban America as we speak with a guy who almost certainly treats her better than the Mr. Smith of her infamous parking lot encounter.

There is a very simple lesson that I'd like to impart to the younger folks out there:

Guys, if you are in the habit of going out to a bar or nightclub alone and getting really drunk, it's a certainty that eventually you are going to wind up with a broken jaw, cracked skull, and 4 broken ribs when some guy you mouth off to and his friends catch you in the parking lot and give you a working over.

Girls, if you are in the habit of going out to a bar or nightclub alone and getting really drunk, it's a certainty that eventually you are going to wind up experiencing a violent or traumatic sexual encounter with a guy that, if sober, you would have had enough common sense to avoid.

Don't get in a situation where you find yourself drunk and alone, and be prepared to accept some responsibility when life charges you The Stupid Tax if you do.