Kirstin Lobato gets a new trial

Kirstin Lobato is a young woman in nevada, currently in prison for murder. in may of 2001, she was attacked in a motel parking lot by a man attempting rape. she fought him off, using a knife in order to cut the area of his genitals. when she left, he was alive, though curled up crying. a friend reported the incident to the police a while later. Kirstin didn't report the attack to the police because at the time, she was a stripper, and was using amphetamines, and had the sense to know that she wouldn't receive any kind of help from law enforcement. approximately 6 weeks after Kirstin fought off the attacker, a different, much smaller man was murdered in Las Vegas. at the time of the murder, Kirstin was in Panaca, Nevada, with her parents. the murder victim's genitals had been severed after death, and police decided based on that similarity that she was a suspect. they questioned her, and failed to tell her anything about the body type or timing of the crime--- leading her to believe that the man who had attacked her in may had been found dead. kirstin described her experience, and the police wrote off the many discrepancies between her account and the murder as a result of a "drug-induced haze", despite the fact that kirstin had been drug free for several weeks at the time police questioned her. they arrested her, and then ignored the statements of her parents who, upon learning the date of the crime, immediately came forward to attest to her whereabouts. fast-forward to trial, where Kirstin, reliant on the efforts of a court-appointed public defender who mounted almost no defense, was attacked by the DAs office because she had a history of child sexual abuse. this history was used to make the argument that she must have committed the crime due to a hatred of men.

all of these events are documented by the Free Kirstin Lobato campaign, composed of Kirstin's supporters and friends. thanks to several years of advocacy, and a number of media stories focusing on her wrongful conviction, the nevada supreme court has finally granted her a new trial, beginning september 11 of this year. at this time, she's still imprisoned.

beyond general sloppiness and bungling by detectives and by the DA, kirstin's incarceration wouldn't have happened without a whole set of problematic and oppressive things first being true:

1) people who can not afford good legal representation are routinely left without any real semblance of constitutional due process
2) strippers and other people in the sex industries are suspect, presumed to be criminals
3) fighting back against a rapist is not understood as self-defense
4) the fact of child sexual abuse does not necessarily occasion respect, solidarity, or empathy from juries, for victims --- in fact it can occasion contempt, blame, and retaliation
5) the fact that people in the sex industries self-medicate or use drugs is taken of further proof of guilt or lack of credibility, rather than as evidence that the state is harming economically and/or sexually vulnerable people by driving us into commercial sexual exploitation

the trial is coming soon, and if you're in nevada, it helps to have bodies in the courtroom. there's also more information on her campaign website about donating to kirstin's legal fund, and other ways to support her.

it's hard to figure out how to fully express solidarity with someone who's been sexually abused as a child, survived the sex industries, fought off a rapist, and then been punished for each of those things with years of prison time. the injury the state of nevada is doing to kirstin is vicious and irreparable and most direct. there's also harm to rape victims, sexual exploitation survivors, to victims of oppressive criminal justice systems, to anybody who needs to be able to fight the abuses of our bodies. the only reason that kirstin is getting a new trial, after years of prison, is that she never in fact killed the man in question. there's an underlying and broader message --- that if a sexual assault victim manages to kill an assailant, this is a terrible crime, somehow worse than the rape it stops. the police, the courts have said: escaping a rape is punishable, criminal. and now, in 2006, the court will decide whether or not 5 years is enough time for such a crime.

shrayberin