Both high school football players accused in the Steubenville, OH rape trial were found guilty on all counts Sunday morning – the same Steubenville that became notorious earlier this year for its football team’s “rape crew,” who proudly boasted about gang-raping a girl in a video that went viral. To catch up, quickly:
The 16-year old victim claimed to have been unconscious at the time of her assault. She was at a party with her assailants, blacked out, and woke up in a strange house, naked. She later learned what happened to her through text messages, pictures, and posts on social media by classmates who witnessed the assault (let that sink in for a minute). Witnesses say she was seen to be too drunk to move or talk – whether she was roofied remains unclear. The suspects convicted as juveniles with rape by digital penetration are Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, members of the Steubenville High School football team.
1. Two ex-friends of the victim testified against her, saying:
- She had a crush on one of her assailants
- She drank at least four vodka shots and two beers that night
- She did not believe the accuser, “Because she lies about things.”
2. Mark Cole, a member of the football team who was present during the assault and granted immunity for his testimony, said he recorded video of Trent Mays performing a sex act on the unconscious victim in a car on the night of the assault, but deleted it the next morning, realizing it was wrong. He also testified that later, when Mays attempted to have the girl perform a sex act on him, “she didn’t really respond to it.”
3. Evan Westlake, 18, also on the football team, testified that he witnessed Richmond digitally penetrating (ie. with his fingers) the victim, but didn’t stop it, because, “It wasn’t violent. I didn’t know exactly what rape was. I thought it was forcing yourself on someone.” Anthony Craig, 18, another witness, also testified to Richmond digitally penetrating the victim, saying, “She wasn’t moving. She wasn’t talking. She wasn’t participating,”
4. The victim was initially reluctant to name her assailants when she went to the hospital after the incident, “because honestly, I was praying that everything I heard wasn’t true. I didn’t want to get myself into drama because I knew everyone would just blame me.”
Let’s just clear up a few things, lest anyone be confused:
1a. No matter how hard someone is crushing on you, it doesn’t give you a right to penetrate them in any non-consensual way. Not with your fingers, not with your boner, not with anything. Ever. Even if you’ve had consensual sex before, it has to be consensual every. single. time.
1b. A drunk person does not equal a rape-able person. No one equals a rape-able person. EVER.
1c. “Because she lies about things.” — While I respect testimony under oath and have no idea what the accuser’s honesty level is, let’s just pause for a second to appreciate this insightful reasoning that carries all the lyricism of a hastily scribbled note passed during 4th period Bio.
2. “She didn’t really respond to it.” “She wasn’t moving. She wasn’t talking. She wasn’t participating,” <— If this sums up your sexual partner’s reactions to you, then she is not actually a partner and you need to back the f*ck up.
3. “It wasn’t violent. I didn’t know exactly what rape was. I thought it was forcing yourself on someone.” THIS. This is a huge HUGE problem with a common perception of rape and violence. First of all, shoving your fingers into an unconscious person is violent. Second, rape means any kind of penetration or sexual act that is not consensual, not exclusively penile penetration. When someone is unconsciously photographed with semen on their body, as the girl in this case was, that in itself is reason enough to define rape as unwelcome sexual assault.
4. “I knew everyone would just blame me.” My neck hurts from shaking my head so much. This is why cases like this are so important. Because rapists should be the ashamed ones, but we perpetuate a culture of victim blaming while 97% of rapists are never jailed. There is no reason, under any circumstance whatsoever, that a person deserves blame for an uninvited sexual assault. There is a vast ocean of interactions, consent, and mutual engagement between flirting and sex, and one partner being unconscious is not even a seagull flying over it.
When I first saw pictures of this tragedy, all I could feel was an overwhelming sadness and sympathy for the victim. It really rubs me the wrong way when professionals try to evoke sympathy for the rapists. NO! The boys are 100% responsible for ruining their own careers and future. THEY made the choice and they are old enough to know that what they did was absolutely unacceptable. Regardless of how the victim got into that situation, nobody deserves to have their body treated like that. Reading this made me feel a little bit reassured that the world is not going crazy! Thank you for articulating that what these boys did was wrong and that rape should not be joked about. I also hope that there will be consequences for those who uploaded the pictures and videos that will be following the victim for the rest of their lives. Idles bystanders, I believe, are somewhat responsible.
Disgusting actions by people who have rightly been punished to the full extent of law. We must be careful, however, of letting them off the hook by highlighting imagery that they may or may not have seen online as a reason for their total loss of morality and decency.
In the same way that video games and movies are not to blame for people who commit copycat crimes, recreating something you have seen in a porn video singles you out as, at best, someone perhaps not in full control of yourself, and at worst an idiot fully deserving of any and all punishment meted out to you by law. Just because you have seen something done by others doesn’t mean you can get away with not consulting your moral compass before EVERY action which affects other people.
All other angry, and disgusted emotions aside; I feel like this case is a little too indicative of the perceptions of other people as possessions in this country. Thank you for writing this, I am glad to see that I am not the only one horrified by the circumstances, reactions, and ultimately the punishments involved in this case.
I am disgusted and appalled. Hell, how do I even start responding to…THAT? Bloody hell.
Yes, I bet it was a really tragic experience for these bastards to forcefully penetrate a dead-drunk girl while having the acts filmed. I would also hope the the filming bystanders could be charged as accomplices.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. I watched MSNBC in horror yesterday when the reporter attempted to make listeners feel sorry for the rapists, because they came from “bad families.” I don’t care where they come from, what they did was horrible, and yes, it is their fault.
as far as these boys go, it makes me wonder what kind of things they were exposed to that drove them to do this to that poor girl. what drives them to believe even for a second that treating anyone in a such a disgusting way is fun, funny, amusing, or remotely okay? my heart aches to know there are people (especially ones as young at 16 and 17) that commit such revolting acts like this. it’s atrocious and heart breaking.
Unfortunately the hero worship of these boys is still continuing. In many of the articles and news reports I’ve seen since the conviction the focus has been on how this verdict will affect these boys’ lives and how tragic it is that they will have to register as sex offenders, etc. No one seems to mention the victim and how this experience will impact her for years to come and most likely for the rest of her life. It’s disappointing.
I am absolutely SHOCKED and completely DISGUSTED. I’m seriously crying while reading this. I just… I don’t understand how things like this HAPPEN. THAT ONE DUDE DIDN’T EVEN REALLY KNOW WHAT RAPE WAS????? I’m just so mad. How is it possible that rape culture is still THIS BAD in 2013??? I don’t even have any more words. I am beyond shocked.
This story saddened me, and I am glad those accused are being held accountable for their crimes. Oftentimes, athletes are acquitted, because the team needs them. Whether or not she lies, she still shouldn’t be raped.
This is just horrible. Thank goodness these guys were prosecuted. There is nothing a girl (or guy) could do that would make rape acceptable. Who cares if she was drinking, what she was or wasn’t wearing, that’s her business, not an accuse to violate her sexually.
Thank you for this and thank you to the commenters here. This is the first place I’ve read about this story where the comments weren’t at least half filled with monsters blaming the victim or trolling. I feel slightly better about humanity now. I needed that today.
Can I just say how amazing it is to see men and women carrying on intellectual, real and meaningful conversations in the comment section? Especially when it pertains to a topic that desperately needs more discussion. I mean, seriously, thank you to everyone for proving how much good there is on this crazy, crazy Internt.
Wow! This makes me so sick. My question is this, Why is the young man that video tapped this not being charged with child pornagraphy? That young man is just as much fault for what happen to this young lady as the two boys that assulted her. And the others that just sat and watched it happen, shouldn’t they also be put in jail? What are they going to learn from this? I’m glad the little pieces of garbage are going to jail for what they did, but I really think the other boys should be locked up with them.
Apparently the guy that video taped(Mark Cole) and the other guy that testified (Evan Westlake) had a deal with prosecution to testify in exchange for immunity from charges related to the incident.
Ugh this story makes me cringe, we need more education on this subject to EVERYONE. We need more people like you who wrote this article and everyone who thinks that what happened is and was truly terrible. Great article, I agree with you completely.
This entire story makes me want to cry, throw something, and just get away from this world. This is horrible that this happened to this young woman and even more horrible that she feels so much shame. I hate how she found out about this and that no ONE thought to help her. I truly feel horrible for this woman’s experience and I am glad the two men were convicted although I am upset that some people got immunity for their testimony. I know that it was to help the case but this just….this was wrong. Her life is forever changed because of this and although she may have needed to be responsible with her drinking-THEY should be PUNISHED for what they all did! Because like you said, just cause she did what did does not give ANYONE the right to then harm her! I mean she can do what she wants, particularly since she wasn’t hurting anyone.
I am hoping and praying for this girl to be able to recover and do well in life after such a horrible thing has occurred to her.
This actually turns my stomach. Claiming to not know this counted as rape is just shocking and ridiculous.
We have to educate girls AND boys to stop this happening in the first place.
But education won’t change what this girl has been through and so many countless other people across the world and that’s a tragedy that can’t be fixed.
My jaw is still smarting from putting a dent in the floor when I read, “It wasn’t violent. I didn’t know exactly what rape was. I thought it was forcing yourself on someone.” I have to say that even in Ye Olde 90′s our (male, FWIW) Health teacher made the definition of rape pretty damn clear.
Thank you so much for this article. It’s really well written and you’ve made some very important points – particularly about porn potentially confusing relatively inexperienced members of both genders as to what sex is supposed to be like.
This case had a vaguely satisfactory outcome, but until all victims feel safe to speak out, “friends” put down their damn smart phones and PREVENT rather than tweet, and until everyone is completely clear on what rape is, no progress will be good enough.
thank you! I work with adolescent girls, some of whom are sexually harassed / abused. I am so sick of having to explain to them, and their parents, that the PERPETRATORS are the ones to blame, not them, no matter what the girl did or didn’t do!!! I get so sick of walking through school hallways (and I wish I could say it was only high school), and hearing and seeing the boys celebrating how far they got with girls. It’s disgusting! I’m glad these guys were convicted. I can’t comprehend a mentality that would protect them so much that LEGAL PROFESSIONALS would have to remove themselves from the case. I hope that someone, somewhere, steps up and helps this young woman, her family, and her community, learn that everyone is someone, and that NO ONE has the right to touch ANYONE without consent.
They can’t charge the people with cameras because then no case would ever have evidence to begin with. I hate that there need to exist compromises like these.
I wonder what the kids who filmed the acts were thinking at that moment… slut-shaming? I think it speaks poorly of the sex-ed. they recieve (in school, from the things you see on TV and at home) if it takes for them aprox. 12 hs. from filming a horrible act to realizing it was indeed a horrible act, feeling second-hand embarassment and deleting the video.
I also wonder how many more people took part in this but weren’t caught on camera and walked away. And if someone else saw them or heard them telling stories about that night and didn’t testify against them, and whether or not they’ll regret it later. I wonder if they’re too young to know the (ir)relevance a testimony has.
I’m glad 2 of the criminals were convicted but what about the ones who weren’t registered on cameras?
Poor girl, just from reading this I feel powerless and I keep thinking she probably does, too.