If Quintez Cephus Is Found Innocent Will He Be Able to Play Football Again
Later on a week-long trial, it took a jury less than 45 minutes to observe former Badgers football role player Quintez Cephus not guilty of both sexual assault charges he faced.
Cephus' swift acquittal on Aug. 2 by a unanimous jury came nearly one yr after Cephus was charged with the offenses in August 2018. And while Cephus' acquittal was surely an enormous relief to Cephus, his lawyers, friends and family unit, Cephus likely faced a living hell for the past year.
Although Cephus steadfastly maintained his innocence from day 1, Cephus was charged with serious crimes that exposed him to significant prison time, if bedevilled. Cephus was also suspended from the UW football team and expelled from the university. Cephus' reputation was trashed, his career was in ruins and his life was effectively destroyed.
Sadly, some people in the "court of public opinion" refused to afford Cephus the presumption of innocence and instead presumed his guilt. Wisconsin Land Journal sportswriter Tom Oates, in an Baronial 2018 article titled "UW has chance to show it truly does athletics the right way," wrote that "the incident" is either an "isolated instance" of "bad decisions" or a "sign that UW has compromised its values by admitting athletes of questionable character." Oates wrote that UW "must bear witness that such beliefs won't be tolerated." Perhaps almost outrageously, Oates opined that even if Cephus were found not guilty, "the punishment he … will take already served would be fair."
In an August 2018 opinion column titled "UW Badgers Quintez Cephus case: Jumping to conclusions unsafe," I wrote critically of Oates' cavalcade and expressed my concern that some people were presuming Cephus to be guilty. In the column, I argued that we should afford Cephus the presumption of innocence and that he may exist innocent.
At the fourth dimension, I highlighted some of the alleged facts that were emerging in the case — one of the accusers sending Cephus a text message with a heart and osculation emoji after she claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Cephus and the defense's exclamation that surveillance video showed an accuser from the date of the incident walking effectually without exhibiting signs of impairment, seemingly contrary to the accusation that both women were intoxicated.
Cephus long agone proclaimed his innocence on Twitter, writing in part: "I have been wrongfully accused of unlawful acquit and I am innocent of whatsoever allegations associated with this consensual human relationship."
What I wrote in my column back in Baronial 2018 about Cephus' case is something I still firmly believe today: "If Cephus is innocent, and then any amount of punishment he receives is a tragedy — from the fact that he was charged with such serious crimes, to his pause from the team, to the relentless attacks on his character, reputation and career."
But perchance most troubling is that even afterward Cephus' complete and swift acquittal, there are still those who presume his guilt. In an interview with WISC-TV iii in Madison, Rape Crisis Center Executive Director Erin Thornley-Parisi said about the acquittal: "We kind of expected that and not because he's not guilty, but because of the immense resources that went into his defense." Thornley-Parisi went on to say, in function, "… We believe victims and we know that what these women say, you know have reported happened, that it did happen."
In other words, Thornley-Parisi presumed Cephus' guilt and continues to practice and so even after Cephus was constitute not guilty because, as Thornley-Parisi put information technology, "we believe victims" and "we know ... what these women … reported happened … did happen."
Thornley-Parisi clearly does non care virtually the evidence nor about judging each individual instance on its own merits. Instead, when a adult female accuses a homo of sexual set on, it appears Thornley-Parisi automatically believes the woman no matter the evidence and in spite of a jury's acquittal.
Fortunately, nosotros exercise not have to speculate most the reasons why the jury acquitted Cephus. In an interview with WKOW-Goggle box in Madison, juror April Weir-Hauptman said Cephus told "the truth" and "Everyone came surprisingly to the table with the aforementioned verbal not guilty verdict, without whatever discussion."
Weir-Hauptman said: "All of the states on the jury back up the 'MeToo' motion. But information technology's but not that easy. … Yous have to await at all the evidence, and at the end of the day, what we believe in is doing what's right and what's off-white."
Although the presumption of innocence applies to a court of law rather than to the "court of public opinion," non affording people accused of crimes some mensurate of that same presumption in the courtroom of public opinion can be extremely dangerous and reckless.
Just because a person alleges some other committed an offense does not mean we ought to reflexively believe information technology, no matter how socially adequate it may be to practise so. Quintez Cephus' case is a prime example of the importance of that principle.
Casey Hoff is a criminal defence force lawyer based in Sheboygan.
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Source: https://www.sheboyganpress.com/story/opinion/2019/08/09/quintez-cephus-acquittal-shows-dangers-presuming-guilt-former-wisconsin-badgers-football-player/1966113001/
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