JUSTICE IS DONE ON RAPE: NOTHING ELSE IS NEEDED

Rape remains one of society's most despicable crimes. The trauma it imposes can stay with the victim a lifetime. So painful is this act of violence that some victims prefer to let it go unreported as opposed to reliving the experience in a courtroom. The prosecution of these crimes and the deportment of their principles instruct us on how the American populace views rape. Recent cases have revealed the best, the worst and the most confounding aspects of this crime.

This is the story of two rapes, one that got international attention and one that got notice only within our environs. One involved a celebrated athlete and the other just ordinary citizens. One involved the unmistakable identity of the rapist and the bringing of charges against a well-known individual, while the other involved a skilled bit of police investigation and the location and arrest of a suspect several states removed from the crime. However, the similarity of the cases remained fundamental and unshakable: the same basic law protected both women, the victims remained steadfast in their stories and prosecutors performed admirably to see justice was carried out.

The Mike Tyson rape trial provided the circus atmosphere of one of his prize fights ... only much more was at stake than a championship belt and a big pay day. Tyson was convicted on the facts of the case, which indicated that he had raped an 18-year-old beauty queen. The defense arguments that this young millionaire was so base and animalistic that the teen-ager should have known to expect a sexual assault were insulting to decent Americans, and ultimately unconvincing to the jury. The sideshow aftermath of the conviction with some parties claiming racism and Donald Trump suggesting a mammoth Tyson contribution to sexual abuse charities could substitute for his imprisonment are demeaning to the victims and our system of justice.

Where the proceedings in the Tyson trial were garish, the guilty plea of Rubin R. Weeks last week was subdued, almost inconspicuous. A Mississippi man, Weeks was tracked down in his home state and charged with kidnapping and raping a Cape Girardeau County woman, cutting her with a knife and leaving her bound in a field. Four months to the day after the crime was committed, Weeks admitted his guilt to the court. The court also heard from the victim about her struggle to return normalcy to her life. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle and his Bollinger County counterpart, Paul Hahn, did a superb job in stewarding this case to a quick conclusion and a sentence of life in prison.

In the local case, no representatives of the national media were in attendance. But an essential thing happened: the crime of rape was punished. The prosecutor in Tyson's case contributed more perspective on this issue than we could ever hope to. When confronted with questions comparing Tyson's case with other celebrated rape trials, he insisted no grand themes were struck, no societal examples were set and no exalted points were made: a criminal was brought to justice for his crime, and that is all that happened ... or all that needed to happen.