Lazy Caturday Reads: Cornell Gang Rape, Tennessee Botched Execution, and Trump’s Taxpayer-Funded Ads

Good Afternoon!!

Norma and Cats, by Treechild

There are some new developments in the Cornell gang rape story, which I devoted my post to on Wednesday. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has put Attorney General Letitia James in charge of the investigation and possible prosecution and called for changes in state rape laws. Hochul also criticized the handling of the case by Cornell and local district attorney Matthew Van Houten.

Adam Daly at amny: Cornell 7 case: Hochul backs closing NY consent-law gap as AG James takes over rape investigation.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday called for changing New York’s sexual assault laws to address cases in which a person becomes too intoxicated to consent after voluntarily using drugs or alcohol, as Attorney General Letitia James formally took over the criminal investigation into an alleged 2024 sexual assault at Cornell University.

Hochul said the “Cornell 7” case had exposed what she described as a gap in state law and pledged to work with lawmakers on legislation addressing voluntary intoxication.

“If someone is too intoxicated to consent, it should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol,” Hochul said during an Oct. 2 press conference at her Manhattan office. “Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape. Period.” [….]

That bill, S.10632/A.101, would expand New York’s sexual assault law in cases where a person becomes incapable of consenting after voluntarily consuming alcohol or drugs.

Under the proposal, prosecutors could establish a lack of consent based on a person’s level of impairment, while also having to show that the person accused of the assault knew or reasonably should have known the other person was unable to consent.

The measure passed the state Senate but remains in an Assembly committee. Bronx Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, one of the bill’s sponsors, joined Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and other advocates Thursday to push for its passage in response to the Cornell case.

The New York Times (gift link): Hochul Rebukes Prosecutor’s Handling of Cornell Case.

In direct and sometimes furious remarks, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York on Friday questioned how Cornell University’s police department and the local district attorney handled sexual assault allegations made by a student who said she was raped at a fraternity house in 2024.

Ms. Hochul was speaking at a news conference in Manhattan on Friday morning, alongside the state attorney general, Letitia James, whom the governor has appointed to oversee the investigation into the allegations.

You can use the gift link to read the rest if you’re interested.

More on the district attorney’s failure to take the case seriously from Michael Rothfeld and Hurubie Meko at The New York Times (gift link): D.A. in Cornell Rape Inquiry Declined to Review Additional Evidence.

The Tompkins County district attorney said recently that the evidence he reviewed in 2024 made it impossible for him to bring charges in the Cornell University rape inquiry.

But records obtained by The New York Times show that the same district attorney’s office declined to review any additional evidence gathered by the campus police department beyond a six-page statement signed by the former student, now known as Jane Doe.

Cat And His Man, by Lena Ru

The decision not to review the additional evidence has not been previously reported.

On Nov. 25, 2024, a Cornell police investigator, Jeffrey Northrop, spoke to a member of the district attorney’s staff, Jeff Huddle, about additional interviews the police had done, the records show.

Prosecutors did not express interest, saying they agreed that based on the woman’s statement, “criminal charges would not be pursued in this case,” Mr. Northrop wrote in a note documenting their call.

By that point, the police had conducted numerous interviews, reviewed chat messages, logged anonymous tips, reached out to lawyers for some of the accused men and spoken to at least two others, the records show.

You can use the gift link to read more.

Rebecca Solnit commented on the implications of Cornell rape case at The Guardian: We live in a rape-prone society. The horrific Cornell case reveals what that looks like.

Sometimes a story is so so appalling, it captures the public’s attention, including the attention of people who don’t focus on the issue otherwise. Such is the case with the alleged 2024 gang rape at Cornell University.

For feminists who focus on violence against women or anyone who has ever cared about campus rape, the claims made in Jane Doe’s civil lawsuit against the alleged perpetrators may be unusual in its severity – but we know the statistics that show that somewhere between 20% and 25% of women college students will be the victim of a sexual assault (no statistics tell us what percentage of men students will be rapists).

This makes the public outcry to punish seven male students miss the point, which is that there are tens of thousands of campus rape stories, few of which make the news.

We know that nearly every campus in the US has a plethora of rape victims and rapists. We also know how it often happens. The Johns Hopkins University “student well-being” blog summarizes a key aspect:

“The ‘Red Zone’ is a period of time that lasts from the start of the fall semester through Thanksgiving break when the majority of sexual assault occurs on college campuses … It’s a six-to-10-week time frame when many students are going to parties, gatherings, and other social events to celebrate their return to campus. Data shows that over 50% of sexual assaults that occur on college campuses occur during this time. New students can be especially vulnerable during this period, due to their unfamiliarity with the campus, new social experiences, and the resources available to survivors.”

We know that the Greek system that sets the rules for most sororities and fraternities does not permit alcohol at sororities, which makes fraternities the hosts of the alcohol-saturated parties, which sends young women into enemy territory, which is where they are sometimes manipulated to get them drunk and stranded and abused.

The Hopkins blog notes: “Alcohol is the tool that is most commonly used by perpetrators in cases of sexual assault … A person who is incapacitated by drugs or alcohol is not able to consent.” We know that fraternities often make the news for their excesses and abuses, including sometimes-harmful-to-fatal hazing of their own potential members.

We know the Cornell student newspaper editorial that brought this case to light declares that 15% of all students there have experienced “nonconsensual sexual contact” and a disproportionate fifth of those incidents took place at fraternities.

Painting by Serbian artist Vladimir Dunjić

Solnit notes that the Trump administration is making campus rapes even less likely to be punished.

The non-profit organization Human Rights Campaign reports that the Department of Education just rescinded a Biden-era Title IX rule: “Specifically, this move puts back in place rules for colleges and universities from the first Trump administration that suppress the voices of survivors of rape and sexual assault and make it easier for their perpetrators to get away with their actions.” It also affects LGBTQ+ students.

The Trump administration appears comfortable in the company of alleged perpetrators. Last year, it intervened on behalf of Andrew Tate, who is charged with several counts of rape, trafficking and assault against women. This past week, administration members selected Russell Brand, likewise awaiting trial on multiple charges of sexual assault, to co-moderate a panel at a Maha conference on 29 September, and then there’s Trump, who has been held liable for sex abuse, and the allegations against the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. (All of the men deny wrongdoing.) [….]

Sexual assault arises in part through both the entitlement and the desire to abuse and dehumanize women, which is in part about definitions of both masculinity and femininity: masculinity in that domination, violation and degradation are seen as status-enhancing, femininity in the perception that women’s bodies are for men to use, women’s voices and rights to be ignored.

I’ve quoted too much, but there’s still more to read at The Guardian link.

Unsurprisingly, Trump sympathizes with the Cornell rapists. Ryan Prosser at Metro.UK: Trump says he feels ‘bad’ for Cornell 7 and calls investigator by ‘racist’ nickname.

Donald Trump used a racist nickname to refer to Cornell 7 investigator Letitia James as he admitted feeling ‘badly’ for the accused rapists.

Sick boy with a cat, by John Bowen (Welsh, 1914-2006)

The US president called the New York attorney general ‘Peekaboo’ James, branding her ‘corrupt’ after she was appointed to probe the case.

‘Why would the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, appoint a Corrupt Prosecutor, Letitia “Peekaboo” James, to represent the State in the highly controversial Cornell University rape case?’, he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump had previously told the press he believed Cornell University was a ‘fine school’ that would do ‘what’s right’ in response to the allegations that seven of its fraternity members had drugged and gang-raped a female student for hours at a house party.

But he told reporters that he felt for the seven alleged rapists, insisting they ‘wouldn’t get a fair hearing’ with James in charge.

He said: ‘Letitia James is a corrupt person. She’s totally corrupt and I can’t imagine it. I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake.’

Quiet, Piggy.

You’ve probably heard about the horrible failed execution in Tennessee.

Emily Cochrane at The New York Times (gift link): With Christa Pike Unconscious, Another Execution Attempt Is in Doubt.

Christa Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator in a Nashville hospital a day after surviving a botched execution attempt, her lawyers said in a court filing, raising questions about whether the state could legally try to execute her again.

As of Thursday evening, Ms. Pike, 50, was critically ill, they wrote in the Friday filing in Davidson County Chancery Court, and both of her arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she arrived at the hospital.

Her condition sets the stage for an unprecedented ethical and legal quagmire: A future attempt to execute Ms. Pike could hinge on whether she is determined to be capable of what the Supreme Court has described as a “rational understanding” of the reason she is to be put to death.

And although Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions for now, the front-runner to be elected governor next month, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, said that she would try again to execute Ms. Pike, who was convicted of the 1995 murder of a classmate….

Friday’s disclosure about Ms. Pike’s condition is the most detailed update since she survived two rounds of pentobarbital, the drug used as part of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol, on Wednesday evening. But it also underscored the legal and medical complexities that lie ahead for Ms. Pike, her lawyers, the doctors and nurses treating her, and her loved ones.

“Hospital staff are working to save Ms. Pike’s life and to clear the pentobarbital from her system,” the lawyers wrote in an emergency court filing. In a separate statement, they said she was also receiving treatment for “significant injuries to both arms.”

In a statement, Luke Ihnen, who represents Ms. Pike through the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, said that “we are working closely with those closest to Christa to respect her wishes, safeguard her privacy and protect her rights as a patient during this extraordinarily difficult time.”

In my opinion, the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment and should be abolished.

Sam Levin at The Guardian: Outgoing prison chief in Christa Pike case oversaw five ‘botched’ executions, lawyers say.

Tennessee’s prison chief is under fire and resigning after the failed execution of Christa Pike, which lawyers say was the fifth “botched” execution under his leadership across two states since 2022.

Willem den Ouden, Ferry with cat

Frank Strada, the commissioner of the Tennessee department of correction, has faced mounting questions about the state’s highly secretive death penalty protocols since Wednesday evening when Pike became the first death row prisoner in the US to to be injected with lethal drugs and survive.

Witnesses said Pike, 50, was heard choking and struggling an hour after receiving the first injection of pentobarbital, a sedative, and after a second dose failed to kill her she was hospitalized in critical condition.

The scrutiny on Strada comes as Pike’s failed execution has sparked international outrage, with lawyers and advocates calling for a national halt on executions in the US. Pike’s lawyers have called the process “cruel and torturous”, and one death penalty expert said it was the worst botched execution in modern history.

Bill Lee, Tennessee’s Republican governor, on Saturday announced that Strada would step down from his role this month, the Associated Press reported. Lee also suspended executions in the state until the end of the year and ordered an independent inquiry.

Read more at The Guardian link.

Trump’s taxpayer-paid ads are coming fast and furiously.

Betsy Klein at CNN: ‘God made Trump’ ad and at least 12 others are part of controversial taxpayer-funded ad campaign.

The Trump administration has created at least 13 campaign-style ads as part of its controversial taxpayer-funded, multi-million-dollar effort to promote President Donald Trump and his policies.

Yet-to-be-aired spots include a trio of ads highlighting the US military and operations in Iran and Venezuela, one called “God Made Trump” and another recapping the UFC fight he hosted at the White House. Republicans and Democrats alike have questioned the wisdom of spending so much taxpayer money on the ads, which the White House has defended as public service announcements.

CNN has obtained clips of 12 ads, which range from 15 seconds to three minutes long, including two that have already aired. They appear in a Dropbox account — which was shared with CNN — run by LMD, the agency that has been given the government contract for the ad buys. Each ends with “Paid for by the U.S. Government” at the bottom of the screen. Another ad that is not in the Dropbox account, “Final Battle,” has also aired in recent weeks.