On Sat, 3 Oct 2009 22:30:37 +0000 Tom Cod <t...@hotmail.com> writes: > > For what its worth, a felony criminal conviction by itself "proves > up" a civil case based on the same conduct.
But I think Fred's point is that very often rape victims have a better chance prevailing against their attackers in civil suits than they would in the criminal courts, where very often it is the victim who gets put on trial. Also, the standards of proof required to prevail in a civil suit differ from those that hold in the criminal courts. To get a criminal conviction, the prosecution is supposed to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, whereas in a civil suit, the standard of proof is by a preponderance of the evidence. To take a couple of examples involving homicides rather than rape- O.J. Simpson was not convicted of murder, but he was successfully sued for "wrongful death" by the Goldmans. In my own state, Massachusetts, we had a doctor who was widely suspected of having murdered his girlfriend, a fellow physician. He not only was never convicted of murder, he was never even charged. But eventually, the family of his murdered girlfriend, successfully sued him for "wrongful death." He got into criminal troouble because during his civil trial he attempted pay an acquaintance of his to provide perjured evidence on his behalf. For that he was criminally convicted of perjury and is doing time for that. Jim F. > > From: ffeld...@bellatlantic.net > > Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2009 05:57:33 -0400 > > Subject: [Marxism] Sexual Assault > > To: t...@hotmail.com > > > > > If the lawyer thinks you have a good case bring a civil suit > against the > > asshole. In a civil suit there is a much higher chance the > attacker will > > be exposed as a sexual predator and lose his bank account and all > the rest > > of his stuff, instead of smirking as the criminal court judge > says, "case > > dismissed." > > ____________________________________________________________ Click here for free info on Graduate Degrees. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/BLSrjpTKKsqLbWa9zDYxY4qmMZyrNL96xjAYIZTUfHfnrb0ZPnhqCveatTC/ ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com