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04-30-2006, 10:59 AM
:trigger child rape, infant thrown in the trash
Woman will plead guilty to raping thirteen-year-old cousin
By Bruce Cadwallader
The Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, April twenty-sixth, MMVI
Twyana Davis has been living a ten-year-old lie, but is expected to make it right Friday with a guilty plea to rape.
"She's at peace with her decision and it will probably be a blessing in disguise," Davis' attorney, Byron Potts, said yesterday.
Davis, now thirty, has admitted that her ten-year-old daughter was born of a sexual relationship with a twelve-year-old cousin.
For years, Davis had said she was raped at a party.
Her revelations mean Davis was illegally having sex with a minor.
Her daughter's DNA has since been matched to the cousin, now a twenty-three-year-old inmate serving time for rape and aggravated robbery at the Lebanon Correctional Institution.
Davis' expected plea on Friday will be in lieu of an indictment, county Prosecutor Ron O'Brien confirmed.
The so-called Bill of Information will find Davis guilty of one count of rape, for which she can be sent to prison from five to twenty-five years under the nineteen-ninety-five statutes in place at the time. She will appear before Judge Michael J. Holbrook in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
A plea form says Davis had sex with the cousin in February nineteen-ninety-five, when he was twelve.
Though rape of a child younger than thirteen now carries a life prison term, there was no provision for a life sentence when Davis had sex with her cousin, Potts said.
Davis likely will serve at least three years in prison before she is eligible for parole, O'Brien said.
She made headlines in November nineteen-ninety-five, when after giving birth in her dormitory room at Ohio Dominican College, Davis placed the baby in a trash bin wrapped in clothing and plastic bags. A passer-by found the child and notified authorities. An attempted murder charge was filed against Davis, but later dismissed.
After her arrest and conviction for child-endangering charges, Davis was placed on probation.
She wrote Sacred Womb, a book about her experiences, and appeared on television's twenty/twenty and Oprah.
Davis regained custody of her child in MM.
She also formed a nonprofit organization called Second Chance of Life, which focuses on preventing teen pregnancies and offering choices for expectant mothers.
Because of her case and others, Ohio passed the Safe Haven Law, which allows mothers of unwanted babies to bring them to hospitals, and police and fire stations within seventy-two hours of birth without being prosecuted.
Davis' custody of her daughter is now under review by Franklin County Children Services.
I remember this story when it first came out and Davis was arrested for throwing her daughter in the trash and she then got off because everyone felt sorry for her when she cried rape. She just never mentioned that she was the rapist :reallymad. Now her victim has become a rapist. No one can know if he would have if he hasn't been raped by her, but I'm sure what she did had some impact on him. And that poor little baby/girl, thrown away in the trash at birth, now forced to learn that her mother raped her father. Again Davis escapes life in jail because the laws weren't in place back then.
While it's great that she formed a nonprofit organization, it doesn't absolve her of lying about being raped and victimizing her cousin. I hope she's given the help that she needs not so much for her but to protect society from her, since she won't be spending the rest of her life in jail. Falsely crying rape does such a disservice to people who've actually been raped because it's taken so long for sex crimes to be taken seriously by society.
Woman will plead guilty to raping thirteen-year-old cousin
By Bruce Cadwallader
The Columbus Dispatch
Wednesday, April twenty-sixth, MMVI
Twyana Davis has been living a ten-year-old lie, but is expected to make it right Friday with a guilty plea to rape.
"She's at peace with her decision and it will probably be a blessing in disguise," Davis' attorney, Byron Potts, said yesterday.
Davis, now thirty, has admitted that her ten-year-old daughter was born of a sexual relationship with a twelve-year-old cousin.
For years, Davis had said she was raped at a party.
Her revelations mean Davis was illegally having sex with a minor.
Her daughter's DNA has since been matched to the cousin, now a twenty-three-year-old inmate serving time for rape and aggravated robbery at the Lebanon Correctional Institution.
Davis' expected plea on Friday will be in lieu of an indictment, county Prosecutor Ron O'Brien confirmed.
The so-called Bill of Information will find Davis guilty of one count of rape, for which she can be sent to prison from five to twenty-five years under the nineteen-ninety-five statutes in place at the time. She will appear before Judge Michael J. Holbrook in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
A plea form says Davis had sex with the cousin in February nineteen-ninety-five, when he was twelve.
Though rape of a child younger than thirteen now carries a life prison term, there was no provision for a life sentence when Davis had sex with her cousin, Potts said.
Davis likely will serve at least three years in prison before she is eligible for parole, O'Brien said.
She made headlines in November nineteen-ninety-five, when after giving birth in her dormitory room at Ohio Dominican College, Davis placed the baby in a trash bin wrapped in clothing and plastic bags. A passer-by found the child and notified authorities. An attempted murder charge was filed against Davis, but later dismissed.
After her arrest and conviction for child-endangering charges, Davis was placed on probation.
She wrote Sacred Womb, a book about her experiences, and appeared on television's twenty/twenty and Oprah.
Davis regained custody of her child in MM.
She also formed a nonprofit organization called Second Chance of Life, which focuses on preventing teen pregnancies and offering choices for expectant mothers.
Because of her case and others, Ohio passed the Safe Haven Law, which allows mothers of unwanted babies to bring them to hospitals, and police and fire stations within seventy-two hours of birth without being prosecuted.
Davis' custody of her daughter is now under review by Franklin County Children Services.
I remember this story when it first came out and Davis was arrested for throwing her daughter in the trash and she then got off because everyone felt sorry for her when she cried rape. She just never mentioned that she was the rapist :reallymad. Now her victim has become a rapist. No one can know if he would have if he hasn't been raped by her, but I'm sure what she did had some impact on him. And that poor little baby/girl, thrown away in the trash at birth, now forced to learn that her mother raped her father. Again Davis escapes life in jail because the laws weren't in place back then.
While it's great that she formed a nonprofit organization, it doesn't absolve her of lying about being raped and victimizing her cousin. I hope she's given the help that she needs not so much for her but to protect society from her, since she won't be spending the rest of her life in jail. Falsely crying rape does such a disservice to people who've actually been raped because it's taken so long for sex crimes to be taken seriously by society.