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Convicted Sex Offender Acquitted

23 April 2007

Accused rapist and convicted sex offender Kenneth Hinson has been acquitted of the abduction and rape of two South Carolina teenagers. A Darlington jury apparently believed Hinson’s claim that the girls engaged in consensual sex with him in exchange for access to the underground room where he stored marijuana.

Hinson faced life without possibility of parole under South Carolina’s two strikes law. Hinson had previously been convicted of rape in 1991.

Obviously I was not in the courtroom and do not have first hand knowledge of the testimony or evidence. Still, this verdict is mind boggling to me. I don’t know the girls involved but it is beyond belief that they would engage in sex with Hinson in exchange for pot. Considering how easy pot is to obtain I just don’t buy it. Heck, I’m sure there were plenty of younger, better looking guys who would have been willing to get them high for sex.

Combined with Hinson’s previous rape conviction and the mere existence of this underground room believe his tool shed and it’s a slam dunk for me. I believe Hinson is guilty, regardless of what the jury found. I think about my own daughter and how I might react if she was one of the girls in this case. I don’t know that I could let this go.

In the end, however, “vengeance in mine, I will repay says the Lord.” It is not for us as individuals to seek revenge. But it boggles my mind how a jury could reach this verdict. I don’t think society or justice has been served today.