How would you react when your friend make you spend 6years of your life in prison for a crime you did not commit and to add insult to
injury that same friend was compensated with $1.5, this happened to this NFL
hopeful Brian Banks
A one-time promising football star,
Brian Banks, weeps after his rape conviction was dismissed in court,on Thursday,May
24th. He was just 16 when a childhood friend (Wanetta Gibson who was
15years) accused him of kidnapping and raping her at school in 2002. He served
six years in prison for the rape he did not commit and remained on probation
under electronic monitoring. He had to register as a sex offender and has had
trouble getting a job. The worst part was that he had been recruited by
colleges and offered scholarships before the accusation.
(Brian Banks in tears and the Accuser Wanetta Gibson)
While Brian was locked up, Wanetta's family successfully sued the
school district, claiming it had failed to adequately protect her. The school
paid the family $1.5 million.
After ten years of torture for Brian, Wanetta eventually admitted in a
videotaped interview with a private investigator that Brian never raped her,
but would not admit it to prosecutors as she feared she would have to pay back
$1.5 million won in a case against the school
The twist to this
case.........
Gibson had claimed Banks had kidnapped her while at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in California, before raping her. But the truth was In fact, they never had sex.
Investigators tested her but found no physical evidence of rape, Brooks said. Banks maintained they had not had sex and all sexual contact had been consensual.
Yet his then lawyer encouraged the promising student to plead no contest to the kidnap and rape charges, warning Banks he could get 41 years to life in prison if convicted.
Expecting he would serve just 18 months instead, he followed the advice and pleaded no contest.
He was in prison for six years.
Brian Bank moving on: his attorneys representing him said their client is entitled to $100 a day for every day of his incarceration under state law.(that's $219,000)
After the exoneration on Thursday(May 24th).
Banks added: 'My only dream in the world is just to be free... For years, I felt like a toy with the switch cut off, sitting on the shelf.'
Another shocking part for me in this story was when ……….The 26-year-old has said he does not plan to pursue legal action against his accuser, and Los Angeles prosecutors have said it is unlikely Gibson will be charged with making false accusations, saying it would be a tough case to prove.
Really, a tough case to prove?
