For a second I want you to put yourself in Banks’ shoes.
You know you didn’t commit a crime, but you are 17 years old and lawyers are saying you can go to jail for 41 years unless you accept a plea deal.
No 17 year old should be force to make that decision, but Banks thinking if he is found guilty his life would essentially be over, takes the deal.
He does his time, his football dreams are shattered and then the woman he didn’t rape says this…..
He maintained there was no rape and their sexual contact was consensual, but his lawyer urged him to plead no contest rather than risk a sentence of 41 years to life in prison if convicted. He followed the advice and went to prison for six years, shattering his dreams of gridiron glory.
Lawyers for the California Innocence Project were prepared Thursday to argue he should be exonerated.
In a strange turn of events, the woman who accused him a decade ago friended him on Facebook when he got out of prison. Wanetta Gibson explained she wanted to “let bygones be bygones.”
According to documents in the case, she met with Banks and said she had lied; there had been no kidnap and no rape and she offered to help him clear his record.
But she subsequently refused to repeat the story to prosecutors because she feared she would have to return a $1.5 million payment from a civil suit brought by her mother against Long Beach schools.
She was quoted as telling Banks: “I will go through with helping you but it’s like at the same time all that money they gave us, I mean gave me, I don’t want to have to pay it back.”
May I ask a question?Lawyers for the California Innocence Project were prepared Thursday to argue he should be exonerated.
In a strange turn of events, the woman who accused him a decade ago friended him on Facebook when he got out of prison. Wanetta Gibson explained she wanted to “let bygones be bygones.”
According to documents in the case, she met with Banks and said she had lied; there had been no kidnap and no rape and she offered to help him clear his record.
But she subsequently refused to repeat the story to prosecutors because she feared she would have to return a $1.5 million payment from a civil suit brought by her mother against Long Beach schools.
She was quoted as telling Banks: “I will go through with helping you but it’s like at the same time all that money they gave us, I mean gave me, I don’t want to have to pay it back.”
Why isn’t Wanetta Gibson in jail?
She just didn’t destroyed Banks’ future (worst case scenario at least his name is clear and he has some sort of college education), she defrauded the school out of $1.5 million based on a lie.
Rape is a serious charge.
If you are accused of rape as a man regardless if you are innocent or guilty it stains your reputation, so there is no worse woman on earth than one that lies about being rape.
She should be punished, sued and jailed.
