The R. Kelly, Bill Cosby, and Harvey Weinstein cases have much in common, including how they defend themselves in court. All three were or are represented by women. What drives you to take on such cases?
When the trial against R. Kelly began last week, many eyes were on the team around the musician. The people who will defend him. Against allegations of sexual exploitation of minors, kidnapping and bribery. Kelly has four legal counsel, one of whom is lawyer Nicole Blank Becker.
R. Kelly is also defended by a woman
Becker held the opening speech for her client and made it immediately clear which strategy the defense will pursue: discredit the alleged victims. Becker repeatedly called the women who testify against Kelly and accuse him of having abused them “girls” and, according to the magazine “Rolling Stone”, hinted that they were fans. The strategy is neither new nor surprising.
They “enjoyed the popularity,” she said. “Groupie would be an understatement,” she said of a witness who claims Kelly gave her genital herpes on purpose. “Hell knows no anger worse than that of an angry woman,” said Kelly’s lawyer.
Effect on the jury
Words that may at least surprise you from a woman’s mouth. And certainly words that could have an effect on the jury in the process. “The subtext of this ocean of misogyny: ‘I am a woman, so I can say it'”, argues “The Cut” journalist Kathleen Walsh in her analysis of Becker.
She compares Becker’s role in Kelly’s trial with that of Harvey Weinstein’s attorney, Donna Rotunno. “I can allow myself a lot more in the courtroom when I cross-examine a woman than a male lawyer,” she told Chicago magazine a few years ago. “He may be an excellent lawyer, but if he attacks this woman with the same level of toxicity as I do, he looks like a tyrant. When I do, nobody even flinches. And it has been very effective so far,” explained they exercise their power in the courtroom. Rotunno specializes in defending men accused of sexual violence.
Weinstein’s lawyer criticized #MeToo
During her time as Harvey Weinstein’s defense lawyer, she came into the focus of women’s rights activists and feminists who accused her of using her gender. “Your willingness to claim that #MeToo has gone too far has been linked to a steady stream of large paychecks but is not backed up by the facts,” said Jane Manning, a former prosecutor for the New York Times. Even before Weinstein, Rotunno was known to be particularly tough during cross-examination. “Tell her I had a job to do,” she once said to a prosecutor who was supposed to break the news of a raped teenage girl, according to the New York Times.
Bill Cosby was also defended by a woman in court. Jennifer Bonjean uses her past, in which she represented traumatized women, for her work as a defense attorney. “Referencing one’s femininity is a convenient way to credibly blur the lines between victim and perpetrator in a case of sexual assault and to use real injustices in the justice system to defend those who are already benefiting most from this imbalance,” argues Walsh in “The Cut”.
Traumatized victims on the witness stand
In her play, she explains the effect a defense attorney has on potentially traumatized alleged victims on the witness stand. After all, “an essential part of recovery for survivors is understanding that what happened to them is not their fault,” said Walsh. “Harsh cross-examination can dismantle anything, perhaps most effectively when done by a woman whose experience as a woman means that she knows the difference between a ‘real’ victim and a liar,” she says.
The fact that men like Kelly and Weinstein rely on women for their legal counsel is therefore unsurprising and, in their view, probably even wise. (Even if Weinstein couldn’t help a Donna Rotunno himself.)
ambivalence
But it is a phenomenon that is apparently seen as ambivalent in the legal community. Opinions differ widely, according to the Women Criminal Defense Attorneys blog, run by defense attorney Susan Bozorgi. “There are women who believe that if we allow ourselves to take on a role that is more than just a defender – one that aims to subtly convey to the client that he is what he is accused of could not have done when he has a woman by his side, “she analyzes in an article.
But she also argues that it would be wrong to categorically reject such cases. “No criminal defense attorney, male or female, should ever decide whether to defend someone based on the nature of the crime. Our job is to do the best we can to help people accused of a crime,” she explains on her blog. “By avoiding these cases, we are just giving up the ability to represent someone charged with a crime, nothing more.”
In her opinion, it is wrong to accuse a woman of being “anti-feminist” if she accepts such an assignment. Because in the end she’s just doing her job. In addition, it is “wrongly assumed that a woman who represents the client is able to put herself in the shoes of the client when it comes to behavior towards a woman,” she explains.
“Of course women have always dug each other in the service of terrible men,” Kathleen Walsh sums up in “The Cut”. But the situation doesn’t seem to be that simple.
Sources used: / / / /
I am a 24-year-old writer and journalist who has been working in the news industry for the past two years. I write primarily about market news, so if you’re looking for insights into what’s going on in the stock market or economic indicators, you’ve come to the right place. I also dabble in writing articles on lifestyle trends and pop culture news.
