Kansas – Sex crimes are notoriously difficult to prosecute – but one woman in Kansas is using a rarely used 19th Century law to ask her fellow citizens to help bring charges against the man she says raped her.
In 2018, Madison Smith alleged that a classmate attacked her when she was a university student at Bethany College in Kansas. She reported the case as a rape.
The county prosecutor refused to press rape charges, however, saying Smith had merely experienced an “immature” sexual encounter. Her attacker was convicted of assault.
The county attorney’s decision prompted Smith, now 23, to use a state law dating back to 1887 to instead call up a “citizen’s grand jury”. It convened for the first time on Wednesday in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in the United States.
A grand jury is usually set up by the officials investigating the case, and determines if there is enough evidence to pursue a prosecution.
This jury, which will meet in secret, will not decide if the accused is guilty or innocent, only if charges should be brought.
In an interview with the BBC, Smith said that she hoped the result would empower others who say they are the victims of sex crimes, and want to press charges. “There are victims’ rights,” she said.
Most women do not report these kinds of crimes, and when they are reported, they are often not prosecuted. Fewer than 20 per cent of rapes that are reported lead to an arrest, according to research conducted at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.
“We got to change the culture [around consent],” Smith’s mother, Mandy, added.
However, Smith’s accused former classmate, Jared Stolzenburg, now also 23, has denied that he raped her. He was charged with battery, to which he pleaded guilty.
He told the BBC that he regretted their encounter – which he admitted had been rough and that he mistakenly believed to be acceptable. But, he insisted, it was consensual.
The outcome of the grand jury in McPherson County, Kansas, will have far-reaching consequences for the accuser and the accused, and perhaps the rest of the country.
Experts say Smith’s actions could set a precedent for others to convene a grand jury in cases involving sex crimes.
But those who are accused of a sex crime and who have not been charged may find themselves, as Stolzenburg does, in legal purgatory, waiting to see if they may still face charges. (BBC)
