Megan Williams

You can hear the whispering in the background already…Tawana Brawley…Duke Lacrosse…Genarlow Wilson…now Megan Williams…

Abuse, Torture, Rape

That’s what Megan Williams, a young mentally deficient woman, said six people did to her back in 2007.  As well as racial slurs, being forced to eat rat, dog, and human feces, and kept locked in a shed.  She said she thought she was going to a party, not to be a victim.

Malik Shabazz, co-founder of Black Lawyers for Justice, called for national outrage.

“I just hope they fry for what they did to me. That’s really all I got to say,” she said. “I hope they fry.”

Hate Crimes

Because Megan is black and her assailants are white, many called for this to be tried as a hate crime.  However the prosecution felt it would complicate the case as hate crimes are usually only applied to strangers, and Megan not only knew but had a relationship with one of the six.  She was instructed not to talk about any relationship she might have with any of the six.

Megan did not take the stand to testify, her assailants were found guilty based on their confessions and the physical evidence.

Recant

On October 21, 2009 Megan Williams, through her attorney, publicly stated that she had lied, that she had made up the whole thing, that her injuries were actually self-inflicted except for the bruises (which may have come from the domestic abuse charge she had previously filed against the one she was in a relationship with), and that she did it to take revenge on the person she had been having a relationship with.

Needless to say, the nation is stunned.  Prosecutors say she’s mentally unstable and lying.  The public is asking why would anyone confess to a crime they didn’t commit?

The Criminal Process

In the process of determining who-did-what the police are allowed to lie, deceive, and mislead anyone they are interrogating in regards to a crime, and in order to obtain a confession.  This means that if more than one person is involved, police are perfectly within the law to tell one person that the other person has named them as the perpetrator in order to get more information or a confession.  They are allowed to lie and tell suspects that they have evidence that they committed the crime.  They can lie and say there are witnesses who saw them.