Thursday, March 7, 2013

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/

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