Case Study: United States V. Morrison

It’s a statistic that has circled around the nation for years, one that imprints fear into the minds of young adults and rage into those that demand justice: 1 in 5 female college students will experience sexual assault in the duration of their college career (Clark), with only 20% of those rapes being reported to the police (Hefling). As a topic that is so highlighted in American society, there is a strict demand for an organized, thorough investigation that will result in justice served. Controversy regarding whether the colleges themselves or the criminal justice system should adjudicate the punishment for these vile crimes has arisen; some believe that as an actual crime, these assaults should be taken in a legal stance in order to serve justice at its fullest extent. Others believe that determining punishment through the court system is too nerve-wracking for the victims and that by allowing colleges to do so is the only way they can avoid feeling “skepticism” by the police, juries, or courts (Know Your IX). However, when juxtaposing the capabilities of the colleges and the court system when it comes to the adjudication process, it is evident that the courts are more competent in determining punishments for campus sexual assaults.

In 1978 Bennett Barbour was accused of a sexual assault of a 19 year old William and Mary college student. He was picked out a line up by the victim despite the fact he didn’t match the discerption given by the rape victim. Bennett Barbour was a 22 year old handy man at the time of these charges, close to his arrest he and his wife was expecting a new born child. Bennett Barbour served 5 years in prison before making parole. Even though all the evidences showed that Mr. Barbour couldn’t have committed this crime he was still convicted. In May 2012 Mr. Barbour was formally cleared of the rape charges but has not yet been compensated for it. Bennett

Judge Aaron Persky, a Stanford alum, made an inexcusable decision in this ruling, and does not deserve his title. There is a lost sense of security and trust in the law due to his action. Worst of all is the reality that while the victims of sexual assault will always carry the memory and shame accompanied with it, men can get away with it with a "light" sentence and walk away.

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

Annie, also a UNC student, is a white woman from suburban North Carolina. She was sexually assaulted before she started classes her freshman year. She did not report her sexual report because she did not know how to. Once a friend opened up to hear, and asked how to report, she then reported her sexual assault. She was able to speak to a faculty member, the faculty compared rape to football. Annie was then victim blamed.

In 1994, Christy Brzonkala, a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, stated that Antonio Morrison and James Crawford raped her. A year later, Brzonkala filed a complaint against Morrison and Crawford under Virginia Tech’s Sexual Assault Policy. After two hearings, Morrison was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to immediate suspension for two semesters. At some point throughout the duration of these hearings, Morrison personally admitted to having sexual contact with Brzonkala after she said “no” twice, however still affirmed that the sexual act was consensual. Crawford, however, stated that he left the room before any sexual activity commenced and was later charged with a lesser offense that was unrelated to sexual conduct. Being that both Morrison and Crawford were valued varsity members of the prestigious Virginia Tech football team and worried about the continuity of their athletic careers, they made an appeal through the university’s administrative system to reduce their suspensions. After being processed, the punishments were set aside

MILLERSBURG — After serving eight months in prison for going into and stealing money from a Washington Township home last September, a former Wooster man last week was granted early release.

‘Sexual Violence is more than just a crime against individuals. It threatens our families; it threatens our communities. Ultimately, it threatens the entire country’ (qtd. in Burleigh pg. 2). In the article, “Confronting Campus Rape” written by Nina Burleigh; a writer, journalist, and professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, describes what students are doing to force universities to take a stronger stand against campus sexual assault. Moreover Burleigh describes what the government is doing to make a difference on the issue. This includes laws that have created consequences for the assaulter and laws that protect the victim. According to Burleigh, a young woman called Laura Dunn was sexually assaulted on campus. Dunn was a student of UW. On April 4th, 2014, Dunn lost her virginity to two UW athletes. That night, Dunn was attending a party at the university. Dunn was enjoying the party and lost count of her alcohol intake. Dunn remembers being led out by two older teammates, who she knew. Dunn was very intoxicated, enough to stumble on her way back to what she thought would be another campus party, as one of the athletes helped her walk. The athletes led Dunn to one of their apartments where she found herself on a bed with both of them on top of her. Dunn was so intoxicated that she couldn’t help but to drift in and out of conscious leaving her unable to stop the two men. Dunn began to feel sick and was led to the bathroom by one of the athletes, where he penetrated her from behind while she was throwing up. That was a date Dunn would never forget. Dunn like many other women at the UW have been sexually abused by other students. Although Dun’s incident is shocking, it is not uncommon for women to be sexually assaulted on campus. A woman at the  university of Wisconsin is more prone to being sexually assaulted than any other woman in the country because of alcohol intoxication; this is a problem that must be resolved.

According to Nancy Chi Cantalupo, writer in the University Chicago Law Journal, “twenty to twenty-five percent of college women are victims of attempted or completed nonconsensual sex” (Burying Our Heads 207). In October 2014, an eighteen-year-old freshman at Old Dominion University was sexually assaulted. She reported her case to the ODU Police Department where she was treated as a suspect rather than a victim (Jane). The university police department denied this young woman of many things such as a medical examination right away, food, drinks and even did not allow her to use the bathroom (Jane). These factors caused her to suffer multiple injuries mentally, emotionally, and physically (Jane). Many cases of on campus sexual assault has come

On June 23rd, 2013, students from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, met up at a local bar called The Tin Roof. The man, a promising football starter from the school named Brandon Vandenburg, and the victim, a woman who knew him from school, were drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Vandenburg had given her three to four drinks that night, and after the fourth one, a blue drink called a “California Long Island Iced Tea”, she remembered nothing. The next morning, she woke up in his dorm room with no recollection of the night before. Video evidence from the accused and their friends indicated that the four men had sexually assaulted the victim, using both a weapon (a water bottle) and their hands.

Jae Lee v. United States of America should have been an open and shut case back in 2016. Jae Lee, a noncitizen permanent resident, was convicted of being in possession of ecstasy with the intent to distribute. Because of his noncitizen status this particular offense qualified as an aggravated felony under the Immigration and Nationality Act, meaning he was subject to mandatory deportation. Lee’s court appointed attorney continually advised him that if he “took a plea bargain he would not be deported stating ‘the government cannot deport you’ if deportation was not in the plea agreement” (Jae Lee, 2017). Lee contested that had he known taking a plea would result in deportation he would instead have tried his luck at a trial.

In the Article “Former Vanderbilt football player gets 17 years in rape case” by Alex Medeiros, CNN. Brandon Vandenburg the accused, took an unconscious woman who he was dating into a dorm room along with three other football players and gang raped the unconscious woman. The rape took place on the Nashville campus in June of 2013. The jury who were assigned to the case charged Vandenburg with five counts of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated sexual battery, and one count of unlawful photography.

Each school struggles in different ways. Some University’s need improvement in different areas than others. There are many things that are said will be done, but victims and alleged assaulters should not fear that the information that is traveling through the case they are in, will not go any further than who is trying to solve the case in the first place. When Universities tell a victim that the situation will be taken care of, don’t they want to be trusted? Pushing sexual assault cases to the side to keep the University’s reputation in good hands only makes matters worse. Nothing is being learned and sexual assaults are nonetheless continuing to happen. Considering the problems that sexual assault can cause somebody and knowing there is a solution, we must act as a community as soon as

Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967) involved the issue of the regulation of physical surveillance and transaction surveillance; compared to communications surveillance, legal regulation of physical and transactional is minimal. This case was a landmark decision on the scope of the Fourth Amendment. Charlie Katz was indicted for transmitting wagering information by telephone; Katz moved to suppress the conversations as the agents had not obtained a warrant authorizing the use of the listening equipment. The government gave two reasons that the Fourth Amendment protections did not apply in this case. The first was the Constitution only prohibits unreasonable searches of “houses, persons, papers and effects,” and the bugged phone

But many people believe that some colleges are discriminating against the accused male in sexual assault cases, meaning those colleges are breaking Title IX. Even Betsy DeVos, the current Secretary of Education, states that those who are accused, under Title IX deserve a just trial (Young 27). Title IX is a law against sex discrimination and does not deny the rights of the accused in a sexual assault trial or any trial. If anything, the “Title IX and the Obama Administration’s Dear Colleague Letter provide accused students more protections than arguably any other federal law—including the U.S. Constitution” (Title IX). Just because the accused male does not like the outcome of the case doesn’t mean it is discrimination by the college.