Turned Out Nobody Was Without Sin

Amina Lawal, the 31-year-old Nigerian mother found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning, has been acquitted on her second appeal. The court threw out her conviction due to "procedural errors at her original trial and the fact that her adultery was not proved beyond doubt."

[Courtesy of Free Market Net]

Comments

[Madog]

Under muslim law, can't pregnancy occur up to 2 years after copulation?

[Tim Cavanaugh]

Duh, she was raped, and the attacker denied the whole thing. They put her on trial to save his reputation. Haven't any of you been following this case? Even Oprah did a segment on it, for Christ's sake.

[Anonymous]

What, and actually research a subject!?

A good (or bad) sound bite is ever so much more fun!

Anyway, I hope the intent of the early messages was an exercise in irony; grousing that an accused woman "got off" because she wasn't stoned to death for premarital sex on the grounds that it was soft on crime strikes me a rather Talibanesque....

[joe]

"Duh, she was raped, and the attacker denied the whole thing. They put her on trial to save his reputation. Haven't any of you been following this case? Even Oprah did a segment on it, for Christ's sake."

Yes, that's my point. They didn't take his word that the sex was consensual as proof that she committed adultry - the supposedly inviolate sharia law that required her stoning didn't hold. Very significant, especially since it was the Sharia judges who came to this ruling on the laws of evidence, by 4-1.

Cripes, a little credit here.

[Mo]

Those savage Muslims, what kind of religion would advocate stoning as a punishment for adultery.

[Steven Crane]

Yah. We don't stone adulterers, just attempt to impeach them.

[jerseagirl]

Jeez, all this time I thought adulterers automatically went on to The Jerry Springer Show...

[Hank]

adultery: voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband

How can an unmarried woman commit adultery?

[The Joker]

Jesus is walking along and he sees this crowd of people ready to stone a prostitute to death. He intercedes and says, "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."

A big rock flies out of the crowd and hits Jesus right on the head knocking him to the ground.

He gets up, brushes himself off and says, "You know, Mom, sometimes you really piss me off!"

[david f]

who here sees this deteriorating into the scene from Life of Brian...

[joe]

not proved beyond doubt? She's unmarried, and gave birth! It looks like the judges were trying to find a reason to acquit her.

[dude]

Damn soft on crime liberal judges!

I was going to make some crack about Ashcroft but I'm extra lazy today. And now I can't remember what it was.

[Sarcazmo]

Dude, lemme help you,

Where does these judges get the idea that the case was not proven beyond a doubt, the woman is unmarried and gave birth, if that isn't evidence enough, then everyone needs to bow down as we witness the muslim mother mary.

Ashcroft better go check this out, not only for his religous beliefs, but also for the judges overturning an "open and shut" case!

[Tim Cavanaugh]

Retraction:

I'm a retard. She was not raped; I was incorrectly remembering the circumstances. She did have apparently consensual sexual relations with the unnamed man, under the promise (according to her), that he would marry her any day now. Oh, we all know where this story is headed! When she turned up pregnant, Mr. Wrong not only denied paternity, but signed an affidavit swearing that he had never so much as laid (NPI) eyes on her. He being the Man, it was his word that carried the day. Now there are societies where falsely promising to marry a woman will put you in the clink (cf., Dickens' The Pickwick Papers), but I don't know if Nigeria's one of those.

You could, if you wanted to be sophistical, say that falsely obtained consent is the same as no consent at all, and that therefore she was still raped, technically. I choose not to be sophistical, nor to contribute to the ever-expanding definitions of felonies, so I humbly retract my earlier claim that she was raped.

Whether she committed adultery is another matter. There is a long tradition that premarital sexual relations by a couple engaged to be married do not constitute adultery. (cf. Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.) Again, it's her word against his, which is the real issue here. (I'd also imagine they could nail the guy for perjury if Nigeria's DNA testing capabilities were a little more up to snuff.) Since I know nothing about Shariah, and even less about Nigerian Shariah, I don't know whether that is applicable here.

Anyway, I wish I could just go get stoned and watch the news. Sorry for the bad information.

[Blandy Charley]

EMAIL: [e-mail]
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DATE: 01/26/2004 02:42:12
I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.