Discussion on Sexual Assault, Recent Judgments & #MeToo – how the Legal System is all too often more friendly to the ‘alleged’ perpetrator than the victim. Attorney Murphy discusses cases she has been involved where Judge’s trample on the rights of victims, censoring the words they use to describe their assault, making it impossible to describe their ordeal. She describes real cases litigated, including against a judge who ordered the victim to not use ‘certain words’ to describe her brutal unrelenting rape. Clearly, judicial overreach to stifle a victim’s First Amendment Right to choose her words, her speech in a public forum – a court of law. Justice itself is bare if a victim can be ordered to only speak of her ordeal in palatable terms – and not describe what the perpetrator had actually done to her. It is axiomatic, that to get a just result – the ability of the victim to tell her story without judicial censorship and bias is critical for a jury to reach a just result.
A fascinating story that unfortunately, is not out of character with the US judicial system – treating women as second-class citizens, and elevating abusers, and minimizing the effect upon the victim.
Attorney Wendy Murphy. She is a former prosecutor now working as a “victim advocate” and “impact litigator” to assist abused women and children – bringing change to how the courts, legislators, and the public view violence against women and children. She has written numerous briefs in both federal and state courts on Sexual Assault, to violations of Civil & Constitutional Rights – taking place on College Campuses & in the Workplace. Many of her cases and issues are of first impression (never before litigated) in MA and around the nation. She is an adjunct professor of sexual violence law at New England Law – Boston, and often appears as a legal analyst for a variety of news outlets including CNN, PBS & Fox News.
Her book, And Justice for Some is a riveting compendium of insights as a prosecutor as well as a victim advocate – on how lawyers and judges let dangerous criminals go free.
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July 20, 2018 – For those who have only read about treason in the story-books, we have a real-life event going on that may scholars believe is unprecedented in our nation’s history. That is where a sitting president’s closest advisors have close affiliations with high-ranking members of a foreign adversary–here…
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March 7, 2017 – Just as Donald Trump is bristling over what he contends is a warrantless intrusion into the caverns of Trump Tower and he’s beloved privacy-here are the real issues. First, the likelihood that there really is a wiretap is quite suspect–after reading the dossier by the former…
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March 2, 2017 – They marched in to the Congressional hearings, democrats played the warning–the bugle cry, but no one heeded the warning. The litany of Trumpeteers marched their way into Congress to sing their song of Ode to Joy, and then were made members of the marching band–with orders…
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March 1, 2017 – It is not a surprise that Donald Trump has not divested himself of any of his holdings, any of which is positioned to give the appearance of impropriety or conflict. It should also come as no surprise that the same individual elected by less than half…
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February 20, 2017 – More attacks on the press are being hurled by the new president and his administration trying to discredit and ultimately silence the media who report on the presidency and his activities. By the efforts of fact manipulation by the president and his associates, one must ask,…
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February 17, 2017 – Everyday we hear the brash talk from our newest elected official who made the historic trek from the corner office to the oval office–to take office as the most powerful executive office in the world. Yet, each time he begins his oratory, we cringe, as the…
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February 14, 2017 – For those in love with the internet–here is some sobering news. Massachusetts Senator, Edward Markey has put out an urgent notice about the attempt by the new Trump administration appointee– Chairman of the FCC, Ajita Pai, looking to eviscerate the Net Neutrality rules for internet communication…
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October 30, 2016 – As we march toward the day of reckoning to determine who will be our next Commander in Chief, many in the electorate are becoming weary of the hateful and divisive rhetoric filling the airwaves of our oft complacent democracy. From the beginning of our nation’s founding,…
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