KANGAROO COURT @Yale Expels Innocent Male
It did not take a New Haven jury long in March of 2017 to acquit Saifullah Khan of the raping a classmate at Yale University one Halloween night. His accuser took the stand, told her story to the jury, was cross-examined and spent the better part of three days on the witness stand. “Not guilty,” the jury said. In interviews with the press thereafter, jurors made it sound as though this was not a close case. Khan’s accuser wasn’t credible. Period.
That didn’t stop Yale from expelling Mr. Khan over the incident. Yale notified Mr. Khan in a brief letter emailed this afternoon (January 2, 2019) that the university sides with his accuser. Just how did this happen?
Mr. Khan was afforded due process at his criminal trial, but deprived a meaningful right to defend himself at the university’s tribunal. I tried both the criminal case and was a silent witness to the university fact-finding process. There’s no doubt in my mind that the process Yale used to engage in its fact-finding was fatally flawed. Mr. Khan was deprived of the right to counsel at Yale’s hearing. He could bring an adviser, but the adviser could not speak. I winced as I listed to panel members ask compound questions, assume facts not in evidence, and engage in the sort of fact-finding blunders lawyers and judges are trained to avoid. No lawyer, no cross-examination, no right to confront his accuser, no right even to make sure his accuser returned to make her case in person, no right to make a record of the proceedings. Yale’s fact-finders behaved as though the pursuit of justice were the prerogative of a secret society.
You’ll have to take my word for this, of course. When Mr. Khan asked for permission to make a recording of the hearing, his request was denied. No record was taken of the proceedings. The secret proceeding lacked transparency, and, therefore accountability. It was painful watching accomplished scholars engage in star-chamber secrecy. They knew not what they were doing. Mr. Khan is now expelled and will have to fight his way back into Yale by way of the courts in lengthier proceedings.
pattisblog By Norm Pattis
