Accusers may get man life in prison

  • Follow Metro

COLUMBIA --- At his 2007 rape trial, two teenage South Carolina girls described how a convicted sex offender plucked them from their bedroom and led them to a chilly underground dungeon.

The pair said Kenneth Glenn Hinson took them one by one to the room beneath a tool shed, where he took turns raping them, then bound them with duct tape and left them to die.

The state's attorney general personally prosecuted the case, but Mr. Hinson was acquitted. Jurors didn't believe the girls' testimony, viewed by some as shaky at best, and Mr. Hinson said consensual sex with the girls explained the DNA found on their clothes.

Now, nearly a year and a halflater, the girls are getting another shot at putting Mr. Hinson behind bars for life, something he says is all part of a political power play.

The day of his acquittal, Mr. Hinson -- who served nine years in prison for the 1991 rape of a 12-year-old girl -- was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He had been found with a 9 mm pistol on him at the time of his arrest.

In November, it took a jury just five minutes to find Mr. Hinson guilty on that charge, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

On Friday, a federal judge is to hear testimony over what Mr. Hinson's sentence should be -- including statements from the girls who accused him of rape.

"Hinson's victims will be present at his sentencing hearing and will testify as to their many years of abuse," prosecutor Rose Mary Parham wrote in a motion filed Wednesday, asking a federal judge to consider the maximum sentence. "The Government respectfully requests that this Court sentence Hinson to life imprisonment because no less term adequately punishes Hinson for the instant offense and protects the public, including his past victims, from his malicious wrath," Ms. Parham concluded.

Even though Mr. Hinson was acquitted of the rape charges in state court, federal prosecutors say they can use testimony from his accusers because he has never been tried on those charges in federal courts.

Comments

CyndiCk

Consenual sex? With that? If he doesn't do life for what he's done, then there is no justice.

pantherluvcik

They must not have been able to use his previous conviction as evidence in the trial for the girls. If so he would have been convicted in a heartbeat. Yeah, who would consent to sex with him eeeewww!!!

426Hemi

He'd have to pay himself to pop his cork!

getalife

Another sick pervert left to hurt young girls over and over, another failure of our justice system!!

christian134

Amen to that getalife amen...One day someone is going to pass legislation that will give these "boils on the backside of humanities behinds" life without the possibility of parole..Then again it probably won't happen as there are always going to be some bleeding heart crying out to give these evil perverts all the rights afforded to them under our constitution...Although come to think that constitution assumes these people are indeed people therein lies the problem..

mable8

I seriously doubt that the young girls gave that creep "consent" to have any kind of contact with him. When he was acquitted, I wondered what was wrong with the jury, and still do. The fact that they were bound and taped certainly did not convey "consent" in my book--sure wish I had been on that jury; he would have gotten the life in prison he deserves. Lets hope the Federal court does better and does sentence this piece of garbage to life long commitment behind bars.

Online Database by Caspio
Click here to load this Caspio Online Database.
Loading...