At first, you wouldn't dream it possible. How could we let someone sit in jail and/or prison for something they didn't do? However, as the number of exonerations rise each year, more and more documents based on true stories come out revealing the truth behind the flaws in our justice system. America was shocked after watching Netflix's "Making A Murderer," the 2005-2006 Duke Lacrosse case, along with the story of Brian Banks, which are all stories involving men being wrongfully convicted of sexual assault and rape; two of those cases involving young women who purposely falsely accused these men of the act. After hearing these heartfelt stories, the mistakes of our justice system (while a wide majority of them are purposeful mistakes) has shown America how corrupt our system can be. My story focuses on rape. However I'm not talking about a rape that actually happens. I'm talking about rapes that are made up, pinned on a certain person purposely to get them in trouble. It's crazy to think that there are girls out there who have the morality within them to lie about something so serious, but the sad story is that they actually exist.
One of them happens to live in the small college town I reside in. For privacy reasons, we will call her Emma, and we will call the defendant Brody. Emma and Brody had known each other throughout high school and had been hooking up on and off for quite a few years. Brody was 19, while Emma was 16. Brody lives downstairs from the apartment I live in and invited me to come downstairs to the party they were planning that night, but proceeded to tell me it was going to be a bunch of high school kids and that I probably wouldn't wanna go. I agreed.
Three days later, I got a call from my neighbor asking me if there were cops in my house, as he had seen them near the parking lot of my building. As there were none, I proceeded to call the downstairs neighbors to ask what was going on. I went downstairs to find my friend Brody in a scared state of mind that I had never seen him in before. His face was filled with shock as he could barely speak. I eventually got him to come out and talk to me. He told me that Emma had went to her therapist and had told her that Brody had used a gun to force her to have sex with him. It didn't take officers long to pin a case on Brody after that, as he held a paper in his hands with a restraining order against Emma.
I was in shock, is this really true?
I confirmed with Brody he did have sex with Emma, but it was completely consensual as Emma had been the one to text Brody that night asking to come over and hookup. However, Emma was underage, which immediately put Brody on the hook for statutory rape. Likewise, Brody was also being charged for assault with a deadly weapon-two very serious charges that can put a person away for years. How could someone be so heartless enough to lie to the police about something so serious?
I knew Brody was innocent from the get-go. Besides the consensual sex, he plead his innocence to law enforcement; the made-up story about the gun from Emma didn't help his case at all. He was a sweet and caring guy who was only nice and respectful to us girls that lived upstairs. My roommate and I were always downstairs hanging out with him and his roommates, as the vibe was always carefree, fun and safe as they had become our friends. These boys living downstairs were the typical 18 and 19-year-old boys who were enjoying college and being away from home for the first time.
The next day, the police arrived at Brody's house as I watched them take him away for something that he didn't do. All I wanted to do is scream and say "you got the wrong guy," but it wouldn't make a difference. I saw my friend being handcuffed and read his rights. I was devastated and in tears. When you have a minimal amount of trust in our system and it complexly breaks because a immature young girl decided to lie to the police, it makes you want to slap some sense into these naive attention hungry girls. There is probably nothing worse then watching your friend get arrested for a serious crime that he didn't commit, not knowing what is going to happen to him or when you will have contact with him/her next either. How could they let this happen? Why Brody? How could you do this Emma?
Weeks went by as we waited for an answer. On the other hand, I was going ballistic inside. As a criminal justice major, I have heard of many cases in which the individual was wrongfully convicted and spent time in prison for crimes they didn't commit and I wasn't going to let it happen to the boy that lived downstairs, even though it already had. It's one thing to hear of cases like such and it's another to see it happen right in front of your eyes to a person you care for.
On Brody's third week in jail, he was due for a court date. I, along with a few others went and watched our friend walk with chains on his arms and feet. Brody didn't look like he belonged, he was a small nineteen year old, surrounded with scary stalky looking criminals. I sat in the courtroom as tears welled up in my eyes, as I saw that jail had completely sucked the life out of him leaving him and all of us broken that day in the court room.
Thankfully, Brody only lost a month of his life in jail, however, that month felt like forever for many of us. He now has a lawyer and got the statutory rape charged dropped as a result of the text messages found on Brody's phone. His lawyer is working on ridding the assault with a deadly weapon charge against him. What's most important was that Brody got his liberty and his life back as the one month long experience completely changed his life. What Brody endured is undeserving and everyones worst nightmare, but he is lucky compared to those who have spent years in jail or prison for crimes that they didn't commit.
I share this story as a message to our criminal justice system, and the innocent individuals sitting in prison for no reason. Although we do not hear about wrongful convictions, it gives us the notion that they don't occur when in fact there are over 25 percent of reported cases in which DNA exonerated the defendant. Our justice system needs to take serious measures in order to address this issue of wrongful conviction as it is becoming more widely talked about and known around the US.
To the toxic and undeserving women who have engaged in an act despicable enough as lying to the police to put someone you know in jail for something they didn't do, something so serious, how do you sleep at night? Look at yourself in the mirror, and ask yourself what invokes you to do something so unethical? Many of you do it for the attention, maybe you do it because your the most insecure person on the planet, or maybe your just a crazy individual with no heart. You ladies aren't mature enough to realize how serious law enforcement takes rape. You raise an issue that discredits the women who are actually are raped, as you make us women look bad. There's not a force on this earth that won't give you the karma that you deserve, and to those ladies out there, I hope you enjoy the karma that comes to you.
