Brian Banks was a star linebacker that every major college program in the country wanted to have play for them. However, it was all taken from him when he was accused of rape and his lawyer convinced him to take a plea bargain even though there was no physical evidence of the crime.
Without that plea bargain, California Innocence Project Director Justin Brooks wrote last month, “he might have spend the rest of his life in prison even though the case was built on the shaky testimony of his alleged victim, a fellow high school student.”
So he took the deal and went to prison for several years. In the meantime, his scholarship disappeared.
Wrote Professor Brooks, “Had he been convicted of any other crime, even a murder, he would have had an easier time, but convicted sex offenders are in a class all their own. The time is never served. For the rest of his life he would be on sex offender lists, the government would need to know where he lived, and he would have trouble getting jobs or coping with the relationship issues that come with explaining to your girlfriend that you were convicted of rape, you plead, but you were actually innocent.”
“All innocence projects are overwhelmed with work. Thus, as directors we must make tough decisions about what cases to take on,” Professor Brooks wrote. He noted that death penalty cases have the highest priority, followed by life and then cases with significant terms.
Most people already released never get their cases reviewed; it’s a hole in the process to even determine how many wrongful convictions there are. Professor Brooks said that they have never taken a case of someone already released from prison.
“There are too few resources. The cases take too much time and too much money,” he said.
“Sex offender cases should be treated differently than other cases. They are life sentences,” he added.
“His situation was so oppressive, where as a convicted sex offender, he’s got an ankle monitor on, he’s got to register, he can’t get work because of his background with the conviction,” said Professor Brooks. “He was just in such a terrible situation, then he shows us this video where we have a clear recantation. It was very compelling and we took the case on.”
For Brian Banks, he pled no contest 10 years ago. Now 26, his life turned when the woman, who foremerly accused him, friended him on Facebook when he got out of prison.
She told him when they initially met that she had lied, that there had been no kidnap or rape and she offered to clear up his record.
“I received a Facebook friend request last year from the woman who accused me of raping her, where she wanted to reconnect and, in her words, ‘let bygones be bygones,’ ” said Mr. Banks.
But initially she refused to repeat the story to prosecutors, fearing that she would have to return a $1.5 million payment from a civil suit brought by her mother against Long Beach schools.
So Mr. Banks hired a private investigator to set up and record a meeting.
In a second meeting, this time, videotaped secretly, she told him, “I will go through with helping you, but it’s like at the same time all that money they gave us, I mean gave me, I don’t want to have to pay it back.”
“From there I took that information to the California Innocence Project, who accepted my case. The rest is history, and here I am today, a free man,” said Mr. Banks.
No one is certain whether she will have to return the money, though experts believe it is unlikely that she would be prosecuted for a false accusation that was made a decade ago when she was 15.
Yesterday, Long Beach judge Mark C. Kim exonerated Mr. Banks, following the recantation of his accuser.
“There are no words in any language, no gesture in any culture that can explain or describe what I have been through,” said Mr. Banks. “I hope my story brings light to a major flaw in the judicial system. It is time for wrongful convictions to be addressed in the United States.”
He would call it “the greatest day” if his life.
Professor Brooks credited the LA District Attorney’s Office. They did their own investigation, came to the same conclusion of Mr. Banks’ innocence, and allowed his case to be dismissed without a fight.
In fact, he was still wearing the ankle bracelet when he spoke with the media.
In the years since his release, Mr. Banks said he has had a difficult time trying to move on with his life. The implications of his parole were very restrictive, leaving it hard for him to find work or live a normal life.
“The main thing for me is to reinvent myself. To get myself in an opportunity to thrive in this world, to have the same opportunity as others,” said Mr. Banks. “I always use this saying that ‘good things come to those who hustle while they wait.’ While waiting for my freedom, I took the opportunity to put myself through vigorous training and workouts in hopes of one day having the opportunity of trying out for a professional football team.”
In the meantime, Mr. Brooks is now training six days a week to get into shape. He is still only 26.
The Associated Press interviewed Gil Brandt, an NFL draft consultant, who indicated that Mr. Banks could sign with any team, but that his years away from the game will be hard to overcome.
“History tells us guys who come back after one or two years away when they go into the service find it awfully hard,” Mr. Brandt said. “And this has been a much longer time.”
But Mr. Banks has earned the chance and says he is ready for the challenge.
He told reporters, tears flowing down his face, “It’s been a struggle. But I’m unbroken and I’m still here today.”
Outside of court, he walked away donning a sweatshirt reading, “Innocent.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Sounds like he should $1.5 million from long Beach too.
I wonder why this girl falsely accused Mr. Banks in the first place?
[quote]Professor Brooks credited the LA District Attorney’s Office. They did their own investigation, came to the same conclusion of Mr. Banks’ innocence, and allowed his case to be dismissed without a fight.[/quote]
Good for the DA! The DA represents “the people” in need of protection, and Mr. Banks, as it turned out, was one of “the people” in need of protection…
[quote]Sounds like he should $1.5 million from long Beach too[/quote]
This shows some confusion about how alleged crimes are prosecuted.
The Log Beach DA’s office was in a bind. We are told that women almost never make false rape allegations. If the prosecution had not been made then self-styled supporters of women’s rights would have been all over them.
I read about this on ESPN last night and thought about forwarding to you. Should have known you’d be on top of it. Regardless, this is horrible.
“We are told that women almost never make false rape allegations.”
I am not sure where you are getting this information. As someone whose profession has caused me to see many instances of rape, I have much empathy for the victims. Having said this, I do not believe that false accusations of rape are as rare as supporters of rape victims may believe.
I think there are several factors involved. In some instances, there may be real ambiguity about what actually happened, especially where alcohol or drug use by one or both parties is involved. In some instances, fear of someone, usually a girl’s parent finding out she is sexually active may be involved. In others, there may be a regret factor, and the desire not to confront her own failure to have not refused unwanted sexual activity.
In a few cases the accusation may be driven by vindictiveness and the desire for revenge for some real or imagined betrayal or injury.
I have seen examples of all of these in my 30 years in medicine. What thankfully does seem to be fairly rare is for a false accusation to get to the point of incarceration before the women or someone within the judicial system comes to the realization of innocence and the case is dropped.
“We are told that women almost never make false rape allegations.”
I too am not sure where this information comes from. A lot of women’s groups pressed hard for prosecutors to take rape prosecution more seriously because they were often reluctant to file in cases where it is her word against his. I don’t think anyone honestly or at least who is intellectually honest believes that women almost never make up false rape allegations, it certainly happens with some frequency.
From wikipedia:
[quote]FBI reports consistently put the number of “unfounded” rape accusations around 8%.[8] However, “unfounded” is not synonymous with “false” allegation.[9] The largest study, published in 2005, was based on 2,643 sexual assault cases and found 8% of false reports.[10][11][12] A much criticized[13][14][15] 1994 study of 109 rape complaints made between 1978 and 1987 found 41% of false allegations.[16]
A 2006 review of studies of false reporting in the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom concluded:
“Two conclusions can be drawn from this review of literature on the prevalence of false rape allegations. First, many of the studies of false allegations have adopted unreliable or untested research methodologies and, so we cannot discern with any degree of certainty the actual rate of false allegations. A key component in judging the reliability of research in this area relates to the criteria used to judge an allegation to be false. Some studies use entirely unreliable criteria, while others provide only limited information on how rates are measured. The second conclusion that can be drawn from the research is that the police continue to misapply the no- crime or unfounding criteria and in so doing it would appear that some officers have fixed views and expectations about how genuine rape victims should react to their victimisation. The qualitative research also suggests that some officers continue to exhibit an unjustified scepticism of rape complainants, while others interpret such things as lack of evidence or complaint withdrawal as ‘‘proof’’ of a false allegation. Such findings suggest that there are inadequacies in police awareness of the dynamics and impact of sexual victimisation and this further reinforces the importance of training and education. However, the exact extent to which police officers incorrectly label allegations as false is difficult to discern.”[14][/quote]
Another interesting article on false accusations of rape:
From [url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194032,00.html[/url]
[quote]The passage that riveted my attention was a quote from Peter Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck, prominent criminal attorneys and co-founders of the Innocence Project that seeks to release those falsely imprisoned.
They stated, “Every year since 1989, in about 25 percent of the sexual assault cases referred to the FBI where results could be obtained, the primary suspect has been excluded by forensic DNA testing. Specifically, FBI officials report that out of roughly 10,000 sexual assault cases since 1989, about 2,000 tests have been inconclusive, about 2,000 tests have excluded the primary suspect, and about 6,000 have “matched” or included the primary suspect.”
The authors continued, “these percentages have remained constant for 7 years, and the National Institute of Justice’s informal survey of private laboratories reveals a strikingly similar 26 percent exclusion rate.”
If the foregoing results can be extrapolated, then the rate of false reports is roughly between 20 (if DNA excludes an accused) to 40 percent (if inconclusive DNA is added). The relatively low estimate of 25 to 26 percent is probably accurate, especially since it is supported by other sources.
Before analyzing the competing figures, however, caveats about the one just mentioned are necessary.
First, the category of ‘false accusations’ does not distinguish between accusers who lie and those who are honestly mistaken. Nor does it indicate that a rape did not occur, merely that the specific accused is innocent.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194032,00.html#ixzz1vuz27lbs%5B/quote%5D
A followup about the lawyer who “pressured him to plead.” Interesting stuff. Look forward to hearing from her at some point. http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/05/26/052612-news-rape-conviction-folo-1-2/