![]() “We’ve had several cases where juries have acquitted serial rapists because they felt the victims’ behavior after the assault was counterintuitive,” says Deborah Harley, chief of the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit of the District Attorney’s Office. Instead, we leave jurors to reach biased verdicts based on false information gleaned from television and movies. But experts aren’t allowed to educate juries on behaviors of sexual assault victims and assailants. We routinely use court-qualified forensic, medical and psychology experts as educational tools for the jury, since the average juror isn’t expected to be knowledgeable enough in subjects such as blood patterns, physical or mental illnesses to draw rational conclusions without context. ![]() As the only state that doesn’t allow expert witnesses to testify in sexual assault trials, Pennsylvania allows, endorses even, fiction over fact when prosecuting cases of sexual assault. ![]() Accused rapists have more advantage in Pennsylvania courts than any other state in the country, or even military court.
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