Man Who Raped Sex Workers Convicted
Jury Convicts Man For Rape of Sex Workers
The argument that a woman who does sex work cannot be raped did not sway a jury in West Virginia. This week, the jury convicted Thomas H. Gravely of multiple counts of sexual assault on three prostitutes. The women testified that the father of five threatened to kill them as he attacked them, and jurors viewed a taped confession during which Gravely admitted to holding a knife to their throats and strangling them while he had sex with them.
The defendant did not testify, but his attorney gave a dramatic closing argument, calling the victims "tramps" and "whores." He said:
I would be horrified if any of the women in my life were raped, but I'm talking about decent, honorable women. Not whores who have sex with many, many men for money.
The attorney said that convicting Gravely of rape would lessen the dignity of every woman because the sex workers had turned sex into something disgusting. I guess the defense attorney forgot that "every woman" includes sex workers, too. Thankfully, the attempt to dehumanize the victims did not succeed and Gravely was convicted of the horrible crimes.
