The Law Should Not Call Accusers 'Victims'
Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta) wants to do something that is so fair, so just, so moral, that it is astounding anyone would question it. He has has introduced a bill in the George state legislature that would change the state criminal code where it refers to rape accusers as "victims." Rep. Franklin's bill, which has raised objection from the usual crowd, wants to call such people -- are you ready for this? -- "accusers."
Heaven forbid that the law should call people what they really are!
Rep. Franklin "gets" it. By labeling an accuser the "victim" before a single scrap of evidence has been admitted at trial, much less an adjudication of guilt, the law implicitly accepts the rape allegation as factual. The message it sends does a grave disservice to the presumptively innocent who are accused of such crimes since, by necessity, they must be guilty if their accusers are, in fact, "victims."
