Will She Be Charged?

[TehBorken]

[span id="article"][span id="intelliTXT"][font color="#000000" face="Verdana,Sans-serif" size="2"]Should she be charged with anything? Part of me says "yes", part says "no". If it wasn't for her deliberate lie, this never would have happened...on the other hand, [/font][/span][/span][font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"][span id="article"][span id="intelliTXT"] Petty Officer [/span][/span][/font][/font][font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"][span id="article"][span id="intelliTXT"]Cooper Jackson is responsible for what he did. What do you think- Is she responsible in any way?[/span][/span][/font][/font]
[span id="article"][span id="intelliTXT"][font color="#000000" face="Verdana,Sans-serif" size="2"]
[/font][/span][/span][hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"][span id="article"][span id="intelliTXT"][font color="#000000" face="Verdana,Sans-serif" size="2"]Sailor Kills Marine After Lie About Rape[/font][/span][/span]
[span id="article"][span id="intelliTXT"][font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font size="1"][span class="L8"][span class="oldL8"]
Oct 23,  5:18 PM (ET)

[/span][/span][/font]By SONJA BARISIC[/font][/span][/span]
[font face="Verdana,Sans-serif"][font color="black" size="2"][span id="article"][span id="intelliTXT"] NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - A sailor pleaded guilty Monday to abducting and killing a Marine corporal he thought had been involved in a gang rape. The rape turned out to be a lie, but the truth surfaced too late.[/p] Petty Officer 3rd Class Cooper Jackson, 23, pleaded guilty Monday to premeditated murder, kidnapping, impersonating a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent and obstruction of justice in connection with the death of Cpl. Justin L. Huff, 23.[/p] In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to spare him a possible death sentence.[/p] Federal agents had testified at his Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury investigation, that Jackson had been fooled into falling in love with a woman who called herself Samantha and made up a story about being raped by servicemen.[/p] "Samantha" turned out to be Ashley Elrod, a 22-year-old hotel clerk on North Carolina's Outer Banks, who testified that she lied about being raped. She said she "might have" told Jackson that one of the Marines was named Huff or Huffman, and she said Jackson called her after Huff was killed. Elrod has not been charged.[/p] During his court-martial, Jackson told the Navy judge how he posed as an NCIS agent and took Huff to North Carolina to get information about the purported rape. He said he then slit Huff's throat and buried the body to avoid being caught.[/p] "I'd broken several laws and I had a missing Marine with me," Jackson said at his hearing Monday. "Quite frankly, I was scared of the consequences of what would happen, of being caught, more so than I was of the consequences of taking his life."[/p] If the judge accepts the plea, Jackson could be sentenced to life in prison with or without the possibility of parole, said his lawyer, Don Marcari. The sentencing phase was to begin Tuesday.[/p] Huff, 23, of Indianapolis, was reported missing Jan. 2 after he didn't show up for class at the Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center in Virginia Beach, where Jackson also was a student.[/p] Agents said Jackson, of Boones Mill, confessed when they questioned him Jan. 12. The next day, he led agents to Huff's body in a wooded area in Currituck County, N.C., just south of the Virginia-North Carolina border. [/p][/span][/span][/font][/font]

[kitten]

I don't know if she can be charged, but ethically she is guilty of incitement to a crime because of her lie.  I agree that he was responsible for his actions, but she influenced him because of the seriousness of her accusation.  Love can turn some people into total idiots at times, and anger can drive a person to something they would never otherwise consider.

[P.C.]

Without a doubt she should be charged.  Her lie in no way excuses how Cooper Jackson decided to take the law into his own hands.  But if the question is simply, 'should she be charged'?  I say absolutely.

[Russ]

She should be. Seriously.

  He is resposible for his own actions under whatever cloud he was under, same as if he was blind drunk and did something. Some people are still from the old school of chivalry and making people pay for their crimes, he was probably holding the other a fellow servicemen to a higher more noble standard. Which he should.

  She decieved him.  

[Russ]

P.C. wrote:
 Without a doubt she should be charged.  Her lie in no way excuses how Cooper Jackson decided to take the law into his own hands.  But if the question is simply, 'should she be charged'?  I say absolutely.[/DIV]
 'bless'

 I LIKE this feature!

[P.C.]

Had Huff NOT been murdered, he would have suffered, at the VERY least, defamation of character.  She has broken the law......unfortunately with the ultimate of drastic consequences.

I can't tolerate women who toss around the 'rape call' to appease some need for attention.  

[kitten]

I detest them too.  I can't understand how some women can be so careless and destructive of a man's reputation.  It also makes it harder for a woman to be believed when a true rape happens.

[Russ]

therein lies the problem. the pendulum has swung too far in many cases, but in others not enough.

[kitten]

I just read your signature message at the bottom.  That's FUNNY!!  But I can't figure out your avatar.  May I ask what it is?

[P.C.]

That's so true Kitten.  It belittles the crime and it's impact on the true victims.

  It's hard to keep the focus on the greater crime..... MURDER.....but when the murder was the result of a mindless lie, it make it so much more difficult.  I would not have agreed with his method of justice if the claim were TRUE, but it's doubly hideous that he killed an innocent man.  

[kingy]

i personally dont think she should be charged. as far as i know, she didnt break any laws. the onus is totally on the guy that committed the murder. if you charge her, you are crossing a dangerous line.

  if i were to murder someone because some girl said this guy grabbed her ass and i killed that guy, should she be charged? at what point do you say it is alright to charge someone for a lie? when someone gets murdered? when someone gets beat up?  

[kitten]

Think of the effect of her lie on two families, the murderer's and the victim's.    One man dead and another man's future destroyed.  She does deserve some punishment.  I wonder if she realizes just how much harm she has done with her stupidity.

[P.C.]

Well, I believe she should be charged.....but I'm certainly not suggesting she be charged for Jacksons crime.  This innocent man would have (may have) suffered serious consequences as a result of her lie (had he lived).  Is it not illegal to make false claims of this nature against someone ?    

[kingy]

i dont think it was illegal because she didnt report it to the police. if she had reported it, she could be charged with mischief or something like that but because she was just talking to some guy, she really didnt do anything illegal.

[kitten]

That is what I thought, but since I don't know the laws in the States I wasn't sure.