In the latest case of victim blaming, a lawyer who was defending a millionaire Memphis, Tennessee, businessman in a high-profile rape trial sparked outrage when he told the jury “women can be especially good at” lying because “they’re the weaker sex.”
What’s more is it seems defense lawyer Steve Farese’s comments worked, as the jury found his client, Mark Gianni, not guilty of aggravated rape last week.
Gianni’s defense team maintained the sex was consensual. The 51-year-old businessman is charged with raping three women since 2002.
“People can be very good at lying,” Farese told the jury — 11 of whom were women — Thursday during closing arguments of the case in which Gianni was accused of violently choking and raping a woman who went to his isolated mansion for a job interview, according to reports by The Commercial Appeal. “Women can be especially good at it because they’re the weaker sex and we … want to protect them and not have anybody take advantage of them, at least I do.”
But it didn’t stop there — Farese also accused the victim of wearing a “sexy” halter top, which he claimed wasn’t included as evidence because “they” didn’t want the jury to see it.
Farese’s comments drew the ire of Deborah Clubb, executive director of the Memphis Area Women’s Council.
“It’s despicable. It’s absolutely despicable. I’m stunned. I really am,” Clubb told The Commercial Appeal.
Clubb said Farese’s comments are an example of the attitudes she’s trying to change.
“What we wear, where we are, whether we are drunk, is not the reason for rape. Rape happens because men rape … And it’s wrong. It’s a crime,” she said.
The woman testified that Gianni raped and choked her to the point that the next thing she remembered, she was waking up in the hospital. The Commercial Appeal reported much of the testimony in the weeklong trial was so horrific mainstream news outlets would not report it.
The victim is also suing Gianni for $6 million in civil court.
