It is way to easy for someone to accuse a person of sexual assault in this country and destroy the life with no consequences. The debate? How severe should the consequences be? I'd be willing to debate the issue?

The past five years have been an unthinkable nightmare for Johnathon Montgomery and his family. Montgomery was sentenced to 60 years in prison after a young woman in her late teens accused him of sexual assault, which she said occurred years earlier when Montgomery was 14 and she was 10 years old. Montgomery spent four years in a Virginia prison before the woman recanted and admitted the crime never happened.  False accusation and false witness are not new to those who have studied DNA-proven wrongful convictions, but how our system responds to one who recants such a damaging lie deserves thoughtful consideration.

In this case, a striking reversal of fortune reveals that Johnathon Montgomery was the true victim and Elizabeth Coast, now 23, was the perpetrator of a lie that soon will have her facing a grand jury hearing. She is charged with one count of perjury. If indicted and convicted, she could face up to ten years in prison.
What prompted Coast to invent this crime and finger Montgomery? What penalty is appropriate for someone who lies under oath and costs an innocent person years in prison?

As Coast has explained, she invented the story of sexual assault when her parents discovered her viewing sexually explicit content on the Internet. Coast accused Montgomery, who had moved from the area, to derail her parents’ anger, and because she thought the police would never pursue or find Montgomery.
See the rest of the story at the link below.

http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2013/03/05/justice-system-should-heed-victims-views-in-false-accusation-case/

One of the questions posed to one of my interviewees for my book, Slaying of Imaginary Dragons, what would happened if everyone refused the pleas offered. The response was a short thought and then the response, "Our system would crash." Below is an excerpt from an article on the awesome web site Sex offender Issues. I recommend reading the entire article posted on 3/10/2012. http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/

One of the questions posed to one of my interviewees for my book, Slaying of Imaginary Dragons, what would happened if everyone refused the pleas offered. The response was a short thought and then the response, "Our system would crash." Below is an excerpt from an article on the awesome web site Sex offender Issues. I recommend reading the entire article posted on 3/10/2012.   http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/

Go to Trial: Crash the Justice System written by Michelle Alexander

On the phone, Susan said she knew exactly what was involved in asking people who have been charged with crimes to reject plea bargains, and press for trial. “Believe me, I know. I’m asking what we can do. Can we crash the system just by exercising our rights?”

The answer is yes. The system of mass incarceration depends almost entirely on the cooperation of those it seeks to control. If everyone charged with crimes suddenly exercised his constitutional rights, there would not be enough judges, lawyers or prison cells to deal with the ensuing tsunami of litigation. Not everyone would have to join for the revolt to have an impact; as the legal scholar Angela J. Davis noted, “if the number of people exercising their trial rights suddenly doubled or tripled in some jurisdictions, it would create chaos.”

Such chaos would force mass incarceration to the top of the agenda for politicians and policy makers, leaving them only two viable options: sharply scale back the number of criminal cases filed (for drug possession, for example) or amend the Constitution (or eviscerate it by judicial “emergency” fiat). Either action would create a crisis and the system would crash — it could no longer function as it had before. Mass protest would force a public conversation that, to date, we have been content to avoid.
Now I would love to see the system crash to force reform but the reality is this is information that people get after their lives are ruined by taking a plea. Nobody ever thinks they will be falsely accused of anything. Think again.