The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that 38-year-old Bennie Earl Holliman was found on the ground with a neck wound in a Blytheville trailer park the night of Sunday, January 29, 2017, and died later from the wound at the hospital. At first, all they said was a "youth" had surrendered to police Monday at noon, and police were not releasing the age or sex of the youth being charged as an adult for second-degree murder.
As details started emerging, the "offender" was identified as a 14-year-old girl, and the Mississippi County District Attorney was charging her as an adult. Holliman's mother said her son's death was a "statistic".
Finally, on Wednesday, the paper gave the police account of the background and circumstances. According to her family members, the 38-year-old Holliman had been in an "ongoing relationship" with the child, when he was nearly three times her age. They "voiced disapproval", but didn't turn him in for suspected sexual abuse of a minor. Instead, after the altercation, her own grandmother called police and turned HER in, leading to her surrender at noon on Monday. She's now being held in the Mississippi County juvenile detention facility on $100,000 bond.
According to the "offender", she was visiting her uncle's trailer when Holliman attempted a further sexual assault. When she refused and left, he became angry and she grabbed a piece of glass on the ground to defend herself. She struck at him with the shard of glass, and in the struggle it cut his neck, leading to his eventual death.
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How can a girl be charged as an adult, when the 38-year-old's conduct with her was illegal because she was still a child?
How could her family "voice disapproval" of suspected sexual assault, yet not report it to authorities?
Why would her grandmother turn HER in for defending herself against the man who likely raped her own grandchild?
It's simple -- rape culture.
A society that excuses grown adults for targeting sometimes even their own children or for sexual advances, and instead blames young, vulnerable children for being victimized.
Families that value the reputation of "one of their own" (whether a relative or simply a friend of the family) over their children and grandchildren's welfare, but when they disclose or fight back throw the child to the wolves.
A "justice system" that thinks a child victim magically becomes an "adult" when they defend themselves from further victimization.
Media that refuses to call sexual assault and likely rape a crime, but instead repeats the police characterization of the crime as an "ongoing relationship".
And if a judge, like the ones in numerous cases where the real perpetrators of even toddler sexual assault or child pornography have received little to no jail time, presides over the hearing to move the case to juvenile court decides to blame the victim and refuses, judges who have no place on the bench.
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The only potential light at the end of the tunnel for this child is that while Arkansas doesn't officially recognize "he needed killin'" as a legal defense, most juries here do. If just one person on the jury, a parent themselves possibly, has a conscience and can be the first person in this little girl's life to recognize sexual abuse is NOT the fault of the victim, maybe they can convince any holdouts to recognize a victim defending herself commits no crime.
Until then, this child is being held on an outrageous bond in a juvenile facility instead of getting the therapy she needs to address the compounded trauma of being victimized by a man more than twice her age, her family not protecting her but instead betraying her in multiple ways, having to defend herself from her abuser, and being treated like a criminal by everyone involved instead of a victim.
And sadly, she's probably safer in juvenile detention than she would be if she was released to her "family", who should be facing charges themselves for permitting the abuse of a minor if they knew of the "ongoing relationship".