What do you think should happen to Danmell Ndonye? She is the Hofstra University freshman who recently accused five men of gang-raping her. However, she later recanted her story when one of them provided a video that proved her sexual encounter with him to be consensual.
Had it gone undetected, her lie could have ruined the lives of five innocent individuals. They would likely have been convicted of rape, sentenced to long prison terms, and spent the rest of their lives branded as sex offenders.
And that's not to mention the harm she may have done to future victims of real rape. When those women are viewed suspiciously or are not taken seriously, Danmell Ndonye will be partially responsible. They would have every right to point a finger of blame squarely at her.
So, should Ms. Ndonye have to suffer the consequences of her actions? I think justice demands it. Martha Stewart spent five months in a federal prison for lying to investigators about a mere stock trade. The lie she told was virtually inconsequential but for the possible loss of a few investment dollars. A little bit of money can't even be compared to the value of someone's freedom and good name.
If we are going to give a person five months for lying about money, then, by all rights, we should give Ndonye a life sentence for what she did. But I think there's some room for mercy here. Two years behind bars contemplating the damage she did (and could have done) should be enough to elicit some genuine contrition and persuade her to walk the straight and narrow from then on.
Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, amateur political analyst, and blogger from Virginia, USA. He posts a least one article a day to his blog - http://commenterry.blogs.com - on subjects such as current events, politics, technology, society and culture, religion, health and well-being, self improvement, personal finance, trivia, and sports.
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Hi Marijo, thanks for reading and commenting. Yes, there definitely should be something "reaped" in this case. Lying about a trivial matter is one thing (we've all done it), but making up stuff that puts others at severe risk is inexcusable. Even though the Bible condemns almost every form of lying, "Thou Shalt Not Lie" is not one of the Ten Commandments. However, "There Shalt Not Bear Witness" is. That's an indication of God's most complete and utter disdain for that kind of lie.
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