The Schapelle Corby Story

[RhondaLee]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15443049-2,00.html

SCHAPELLE Corby is suffering cruel abuse and racial taunts in jail as Indonesian authorities move to keep her in prison for life.

Wouldn't it be something for this news to transform into a BDSM enslavement story. Basically, Schapelle Corby smuggled 9 lb of weed into Bali, got caught, and sentenced to 20 years yesterday.

Now, in that prison, the news break that "She says the Indonesians inside are giving her hell because she wears western clothes and she can't speak Indonesian," she said.

[Caitlin]

Wouldn't it be something for this news to transform into a BDSM enslavement story.

Wouldn’t it be something if you wrote your own fantasy BDSM enslavement story. I would much rather read something like that, than some contorted story that was based on a real persons suffering and anguish.

[albear]

I think it might be in bad taste to base a story on Schapelle's case considering she was sentenced two days ago and a lot of people in Australia are extremely pissed off about it. There were a lot of holes in her case including the police failing to fingerprint the bag of marijuana, refusing to test it's origin even after the AFP offered their time and services to test it and throwing all evidence of dodgy baggage handling out even though baggage handlers have now been stood down from duties for tampering with baggage.

If you're talking about the basic storyline: a person being incarcerated/enslaved for something they possibly didn't do.... then okay but not entirely original. It probably wouldn't go down well to mention Corby's name though.

[RhondaLee]

It's a fantasy novel. Just like someone else here wrote a Martha Stewart prison story with a slight change of her name. By your logic, Martha is really innocent (she is only guilty of being stupid), noone should write a story on Martha and yet there is some member here wrote a story on her.

I was surprised that if Corby didn't use the drug or nor never use the weed before, she should strengthen her case by doing a drug test, proving that she never use weed before. But I don't recall the defense use that as evidence.

[albear]

The reason I gave for not writing the story was that it might be in bad taste. I know nothing about Martha Stewart, the circumstances of her case or the story written about it. Nor do I want to.

Just stating my opinion

[Caitlin]

I was surprised that if Corby didn't use the drug or nor never use the weed before, she should strengthen her case by doing a drug test, proving that she never use weed before. But I don't recall the defense use that as evidence.

Corby was tested for drugs. She had both a blood test and urine samples taken. She was drug free. It was on a 60 minutes interview.

There is a vast difference in how Martha Stewart served her prison sentence, and how Schapelle will serve hers. For Schapelle to survive she has to be financially supported by her own family. She needs money to buy extra food, bribe prison guards, and have her own cell, instead of sharing with seven other women. Schapelle is also in a foreign country, doesn’t understand the language, and the population have more their own fair share of muslim religious fanatics.

The judiciary system is also vastly different. Stewart was innocent until proven guilty. Schapelle was guilty until she can prove her innocence. Stewart was judge by a jury, Schapelle was judge by Judges who had never given an innocent verdict.

Just because 'someone else' wrote a Martha Stweart prison story, doesn’t mean you have to follow suit. The difference between the Stewart's experiences and Schapelle are vastly different.

As I said, I don't mind a fantasy story, but one based on Schapelle sufferings is quite tasteless. It's not how I like to get my kicks out of life.

[RhondaLee]

Schapelle was guilty until she can prove her innocence. Stewart was judge by a jury, Schapelle was judge by Judges who had never given an innocent verdict.

Since when? Is it really true? You mean in Indonesia, the legal system is guilty until proven innocent. Also, when you said "Judges never given an innocent verdict, you meant all these years in all the hundreds of trials?

As I said, I don't mind a fantasy story, but one based on Schapelle sufferings is quite tasteless. It's not how I like to get my kicks out of life.

that's all right. I don't write story, I don't have the time. I am just saying this could be a story idea.

[Caitlin]

Since when? Is it really true? You mean in Indonesia, the legal system is guilty until proven innocent.

Indonedian Law is not based on English Law. Schapelle has been accused. The onus is on her to prove her innocence. Not the other way around.

Also, when you said "Judges never given an innocent verdict, you meant all these years in all the hundreds of trials?

The Judges presiding over her trial; Yes. For your perusal http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15400604-2,00.html

I don't write story, I don't have the time. I am just saying this could be a story idea.

And I'm just saying its tasteless to base that sort of story based on a real persons suffering and anguish. This is a forum, and I'm stating my opinion.

[Sweep]

You guys must be Aussies - I don't think that many people in the world (including Indonesia) know who she is.

I think that you are both right - Shapelle got a bad deal and the case would have beed dismissed in Oz for lack of evidence or contaminated evidence.

Still - The first thing that I thought of when I saw Shapelle in handcuffs was how sexy she looked. OK I'm a twisted bastard but that's why I'm on thios site.

I'm sorry for her and would do anything I could to help her but there are very few real life stories with such strong bondage implications.

[RhondaLee]

Indonedian Law is not based on English Law. Schapelle has been accused. The onus is on her to prove her innocence. Not the other way around.

Is Indonesia the only country like that? Guilty until proven innocent? This is absurd to me. In that case, why would anyone go to a place like that for vacation?

The Judges presiding over her trial; Yes. For your perusal http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15400604-2,00.html
.

To be fair, if anyone carrying a bag of weed and simply said "it's not her...someone put it there.", then millions of drug lord around the world would have walk free. The evidence is righ there in her bag, it's direct evidence.

If someone were to carry a bag of weed thru US Custom, caught, do you think that someone can say 'No...someone else put it there, it's not mine", and get away with it?

Anyhoo, what was her original purpose to Bali? Is it a vacation?

[miss duece]

we had this discussion today in class about corby. if this evidence was presented in the US the majority of the student body (with exception of 2 ppl) in this class size of 132 students thinks she will be found guilty based on the fact that the evidence overwhelmingly points the finger at her despite some discrepancies. the fact was, she had weed in her bag and her defense was that she got caught up in some drug smuggling conspiracy back in her homeland. the fact that she got caught outside the her native country and the fact that her defense fail to prove such existence of tampering with her bag is bad luck on her part. ppl get sentenced to death in the US (which claims to have the fairest justice system) without so much as a muder weapon at times (especially here in tx), let alone this woman has a whole bag of weed. its not up to the prosecution in any country to prove someone's innocence. to most outsiders she just got caught red handed and lots of people, especially in the surrounding asian countries don't know what the big deal is. the taiwanese national cable that i get at home even suggested that austrialians were making a big deal out of this because she's white while austrialia has some 80 something other citizens in jail in other asian countries on similiar charges but most of them were asian. i don't know if she's innocent or not but if she's really guilty i think it was a pretty tough sentence considering the conditions. then again 9 lbs will get you about the same sentence here if not more, but the conditions here are waaaay better.


another question that came up during the class discussion was the role of the austrailian govt. why were there no formal investigations into her defense claims of baggage handlers and corruption? instead the govt downplayed the situation of security risks at airports and ask ppl not to panic. well, to alot of the students it seemed that not going to one place because they might prosecute you seems pretty dumb if the problem was at the airports in the country itself, it wouldn't matter where you go, you'll still get into trouble if you got framed even though the punishment might not be as harsh. it seems that most austrailians blame the indonesians for their legal systems 'failure' and fail to look at the supposed orginal source of the problem. its pretty hard for the rest of the world to feel anything more than pity.

[albear]

I'm not claiming to be an expert on the Corby case, or on law of any kind, all I know is what I've heard through the media (which is probably skewed and bias - but that's a whole other conversation!)

The Australian government offered the services of the AFP to test the point of origin of the dope. That way they could tell if it came from Sydney, Brisbane or Bali. This offer was rejected by the judges. Corby's defense team tried to secure video footage of Brisbane airport, the airport was not forthcoming or helpful. The government is now telling people not to panic because of incidents like the one today: an unmarked envelope was delivered to the Indonesian embassy in the ACT containing some kind of biological matter. It's not identified yet, so all the embassy staff are in isolation and are quarantined until it has been declared not hazardous. Now that the trial is over, the governement have offered the serfvices of two QCs for the appeal. They are also drafting a prisoner transfer agreement to bring Schappelle to Brisbane to serve her sentence. Too little too late maybe, but realistically the government have no influence over the Indonesian court system, so there isn't a lot else they could do. Corby's legal defense was being funded by a local businessman who owns a chain of mobile phone stores, so they didn't need to help with that either.

Something else that has been discussed quite a bit is that there are a hundred or so other Aussies in jail overseas for drug offences, yet no one seems to know them. Is it because she's young and beautiful, or is it because she pleaded not guilty?