Dangers in Rape Case ‘Reforms’

Cathleen Crowell Webb has done irreparable harm, and, whatever the truth of the matter is, she should be required to pay a fitting price.

Either she lied six years ago, or she is lying now.

If she lied six years ago, then she has not only robbed an innocent man of six years of his life but, because the evidence presented at Dotson’s trial was convincing enough then to persuade authorities of his guilt, she will have made it extremely difficult for future victims of rape to be believed in court, no matter what evidence they can produce. Juries and judges could not help but recall that, at least once, very convincing evidence was fraudulent.

If she is lying now, for whatever reasons, and as a result of these lies a really guilty man is freed, she will not only be saddling other women with an extra burden of proof in their legitimate cases, but will be helping to set free someone quite likely to repeat the offense.

It is hard to know what to believe in this case. It is ironic, though, that a woman who, six years ago, was willing to put an innocent man in prison rather than tell her parents she thought she was pregnant, is now not only willing to speak out but to do so on the NBC “Today Show.” Are book publishers and movie producers also knocking on her door?

A fair solution would be to jail Webb for the same length of time Dotson was given, whether he is released or not. If Dotson is determined to have been innocent of the original charge, he should be released, but Webb should serve as an example that a false charge of rape is as despicable as the crime of rape itself.

LILLIAN MONEY

Manhattan Beach