Mistrial Declared in Vanderbilt Football Rape Case – blogged by @LoveRubyWoo

Just five months after being convicted of sexual battery and aggravated rape, Brandon Vandenburg and Corey Batey, the two former Vanderbilt football players who raped an unconscious female student in a dorm room, are walking out of jail. In the latest developments surrounding the Vanderbilt football rape case, Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins has declared a mistrial after siding with the defense and ruling that one of the jurors in the trial had a bias related to the case. This means the original guilty verdict that was delivered back in January will be thrown out and the prosecution and defense will have to start a whole new trial.

The reason behind the mistrial lies with one of the jurors who failed to tell the attorneys during the jury selection process about his own experience with rape. Juror Todd Easter was involved in a consensual sexual relationship with an older man when he was just a teenager. At the time, Easter was 16 and his partner was 23, meaning that he was a victim of statutory rape. While Easter claims that he does not see himself as a victim of rape, this new information was enough for the judge to decide that Easter acted impartially when putting in his guilty vote. 

Vandenburg and Batey, along with two fellow Vanderbilt football players, are charged with sexually assaulting an unconscious female back in June of 2013. Vandenburg is portrayed as the ringleader in the attack, having taken the female to his dorm room where he was joined by three of his teammates. There, the four guys took turns sexually assaulting the victim in various horrific ways, most of which was captured on the players’ cell phones. The crazy part is the victim didn’t even remember any of the attack and if the guys hadn’t recorded it, there is a strong chance they would have gotten away with it. But the photo and video evidence was key to the prosecution and after a twelve-day long trial, the jury came back with a guilty verdict. Before the mistrial was declared, Vandenburg and Batey were awaiting sentencing, possibly facing decades in prison. The other two players, Brandon Banks and Jaborian McKenzie, have yet to stand trial. 

In a world where many athletes, at the high-school, college, and professional levels, get away with just about any and everything and their dirty deeds are simply swept under the rug, this was one of the rare cases where the victim was actually able to see a guilty verdict come through. Now, due to the latest unpredictable turn of events, she will have to suffer through yet another trial while facing the possibility that she might never get the justice she deserves.