Ageism,Sexism and commonsense. Pt 2.

                Follow-up on a topic I  wrote about a week or two ago.
                Mr Henry Rayhons, a 78 year old former stat legislator had been accused of raping his wife in a nursing home to which she had been admitted.  There was no evidence of abuse or coercion.  The unfortunate woman had been diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease and about a week earlier her physician had written that she no longer had the mental capacity to consent to sex.  Everyone appeared to agree that the couple had a loving relationship.  Initially, Mrs Rayhons had a private room. Her husband visited her twice daily.  He took her out to church  on Sundays.   Then she was moved into a shared room and Mr Rayhons on some later occasion, drew the drapes around the bed and climbed in with his wife.  Apparently, the room mate with whom she was now sharing complained that she heard "sexual noises" , which she later modified to just "whisperings".    Despite the fact that there was no evidence of abuse or coercion this elderly gentleman having what appeared to be consensual sex with his wife in a nursing home was charged with rape without any evidence whatsoever that this is indeed what happened.   A jury of seven women and five men found that Rayhons did not sexually assault his wife and the man embraced his family and broke down in tears of relief, stating "the truth finally came out."
            Unless there were circumstances omitted from the description that appeared in the press this case was horribly mishandled when a modicum of that increasingly rare commodity, commonsense, could have dealt with it effectively, sensitively and without intimidation, while assuring that justice be done.  It strikes me that there was some vindictiveness involved somewhere for such inappropriate and disproportionate action to be taken.   Fortunately, the jury seems to have had more commonsense than any of the professionals involved.