...seventeenth-century English jurist Lord Chief Justice Matthew Hale, the court sympathized that "rape is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be...proved and harder to be defended by the party accused. . . ." The high court vacated the execution decree and ordered a new trial.45 Although not all cases...

...quoted for hundreds of years afterward by attorneys, judges, and legal scholars. Hale wrote, "Rape is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be...proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent." Until the 1970s, it was standard procedure in the United States for judges...

...an unreliable account being given. CHAPTER EIGHT Complaints of sexual misconduct Janet Boakes It ù an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho' never so innocent (Sir Matthew Hale). 8.1 INTRODUCTION Allegations of sexual misconduct are notorious...

...Justice of the King's Bench, warned against the false rape complainant. 1 1 His admonition, that rape "is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended against by the party accused, tho never so innocent,"12 found its way into judicial opinions and special...

...back as the seventeenth century, the Lord Chief Justice of England, Matthew Hale, had declared: "Rape is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be...to be defended by the party accused, though ever so innocent."18 As recently as the 1980s, many states still required judges to instruct the jury in words...

...Courts to easily avoid sentencing. Seventeenth-century English jurist Lord Matthew Hale wrote: "rape is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be...proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent". Catalan jurist Joan Pere Blaming the victim begins with casting doubts on the...

...pervaded European jurisprudence regarding rape: "it must be remembered . . . that it is an accusation easy to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent."20 Thus, in this age of primitive forensic medicine, judges were skeptical about...

...law on rape, and it is here that Hale penned his famous remark, "It must be remembered, that [rape] is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be...harder to be defended by the party accused, though never so innocent" (p. 635). Over the years, Hale's words were repeated by countless judges and attorneys...

...Placitorum Coronae, voL1 (London: Nutt and Gosling, 1734), 635-36. The full statement read: "[Rape] is an accusation easily to be made, and hard to be...harder to be defended by the party accused, though never so innocent." 4 Seymour F. Harris, Harris's Principles of the Criminal Law, 7th ed. (London:...

...defendants against false accusations and wrongful convictions. In the (in)famous words of Lord Hale, rape "is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be...proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent."20 Although it is currently fashionable to dismiss worries about false accusations...