The UVa Lacrosse Tragedy and the Need for Better Editing
While the details are still coming out in the tragic investigation into the death of Yeardley Love, a 22-year-old University of Virginia lacrosse player, who was apparently murdered by her sometime boyfriend George Huguely, also 22 and a lax player at UVa, I actually want to address something I’ve already seen in a lot of the coverage of the case that I think is misguided.
The Washington Post, ESPN, ABC, the Associated Press, CNNSI, and the Wall Street Journal’s Daily Fix blog all made mention of the infamous Duke lacrosse rape case from 2007.
One the one hand, I see that there is reference point in the fact that Huguely attended the Landon School in Bethesda, Md., where he was a teammate of one of the accused players in the Duke case. Furthermore, Huguely defended the legal process when asked about the case, saying that the Duke players should be viewed as innocent until proven guilty. In the long run, of course, the players were vindicated.
However, outside of the coincidence that Huguely attended Landon and made statements supportive of his friend and teammate, I don’t see why the Duke case has been mentioned at all. To me, it seems like a comparison based on sophistry and it’s an instance where editors should have used their discretion a bit more. Besides the obvious differences in the circumstances (a murder versus an accusation of rape; the near-immediate filing of charges due to what seems to be considerable evidence of guilt vs. the very convoluted situation at Duke*,etc.) the only other connection seems to be that a horrible crime was committed and that a lacrosse player was involved, which means the cases are equal somehow or that they should at least be mentioned in the same breath.
This situation, frankly, isn’t about lacrosse and it isn’t about Duke. Just because there was a prominent recent case that involved players in the same sport doesn’t mean these things should be related in the public consciousness. Mentioning a tangentially-related matter draws attention away from the central fact of this case: a young life was needlessly ended in a horrible fashion for reasons that will almost certainly prove to be meaningless.
* Let it be said that George Huguely deserves the same consideration as all other accused criminals: innocent until proven guilty.
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Hi Michael! I agree with your post. However, my concern is that this is bringing to light an issue that many young men and women (especially those of privelege) have today…a feeling that they are somehow above the law, that rules don’t apply to them, and that whatever happens mommy and daddy will get them out of it.
Katy,
In response to another comment. See in context »Thanks for the comment and I agree with you. The outcome of this case will be very interesting to watch, especially considering (at this point) the strong sense that Huguely is guilty. Now I don’t know if he had an previous run ins with the law or anything (I’m going to assume not), but, if that’s true, this will be his first offense (though you can’t get much more serious than a charge of first degree murder). A judge/jury might be inclined to go a little more lenient on Huguely if it is indeed a first offense of any sort (and his upbringing/background will absolutely be used in an attempt to blunt the outrage around the case), but it would be worth looking for similar cases in VA to see what the outcome was for a suspect of lesser means.
Maybe it was bad reporting on behalf of the networks who didn’t make the connection entirely clear, but it seemed incredibly ironic, the fact that Huguely had commented on the previous Duke incident. When Huguely was interviewed by the Washington Post following the Duke incident, so was his father who said (something along the lines of), that he hoped this was a lesson to his son to stay out of situations that could have costly consequences. Why put yourself in a situation where things can get so out of control that something might happen and then its too late to avoid the consequences? Whether innocent or guilty– either way, you don’t want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and also, you don’t want a situation to escalate to the point of no return. It is incredibly ironic that Huguely’s father publicly warned him to avoid situations that could be damaging to his future or reputation. A few years later, look where he has ended up.
[...] The UVa Lacrosse Tragedy and the Need for Better Editing – Michael …While the details are still coming out in the tragic investigation into the death of Yeardley Love, a 22-year-old University of Virginia lacrosse player, who was apparently murdered by her sometime boyfriend George Huguely, …Deep Background – http://trueslant.com/michaelpreston/ [...]