As I was browsing the news a while back I came across a story that literally made me sick. My stomach is all tied up in knots right now from hearing this.
A young high school football star, Brian Banks, who had accepted a scholarship to play college football at USC was thrown in jail because a girl at his high school, Wanetta Gibson, lied and said that he raped her.
He pled guilty on the advice of his attorney and his future was destroyed. He served six years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
When he got out of prison, the accuser friended him on Facebook and eventually admitted to him that she had lied (as if he didn’t already know that). She offered to help him clear his name, but at the same time wouldn’t repeat the true story. Why?
Because she had sued the school district and was awarded $1.5 million.
Meanwhile, Brian served six years in prison instead of getting a college education, playing college football, and even potentially going to the NFL to make millions of dollars. He is currently training and hopes to get a tryout with an NFL team somewhere.
Wanetta Gibson Wanted to Keep Her $1.5 Million
This girl obviously knew it was wrong to lie. She obviously knew it was wrong to send a boy to jail for six years. And yet, she would have rather had $1.5 million than give this man his life back.
She knew she didn’t deserve the money. But she wanted it.
She didn’t care that the school district could have used that money for textbooks or supplies or to pay the annual salary of about 25 teachers. She didn’t care that hard working taxpayers of her community expected that money to go to the local school district.
She wanted that money.
The Most Logical Punishment for Wanetta Gibson
This girl is going to get in trouble, but my guess is that it won’t be nearly as much trouble as she deserves. They are probably going to put her in jail for a few months and ask her to pay back the $1.5 million, at which point she’ll just declare bankruptcy. And even if they put her in jail for life, how does that help Brian?
If I were in charge, here’s the punishment I would dole out:
- First, Wanetta Gibson should not go to jail immediately.
- She must pay Brian Banks damages for the wrongful conviction (which never would have happened without this girl’s lies). Thaddeus Jimenez got $25 million for 16 years in prison, or $1.5625 million per year of incarceration. Using that precedent, she owes Brian Banks $9.375 million. If she doesn’t have the money (which she probably doesn’t) then her wages will be garnished until she pays him back.
- Once she has paid her debt to Brian, her wages will continue to be garnished until she has paid back all $1.5 million, plus interest, to the school district.
- If at any point she decides that she doesn’t want to work, she will then serve 6 years in prison. And not the fancy schmancy Martha Stewart prison either. She should have to go to the female version of the maximum security prison where they sent Brian as a “rapist”.
What could be more reasonable? She can never give Brian the experience of playing college football at USC, getting an education, and potentially going to the NFL. Maybe meeting his wife, maybe having some kids… who knows? She can’t give him that time back, but she can pay him.
She should obviously have to pay the school district back if she ever had enough money to do so after paying Brian first. That’s a no brainer.
Also, bankruptcy should not be an option. I don’t care if she has to work until she’s 100 to pay these debts.
Finally, I don’t think taxpayers should be on the hook for Brian’s damages. The justice system worked as it is supposed to. The only person who is at fault here is the girl who lied under oath.
Actions Should Have Real Consequences
You can’t just say “I’m sorry,” when you completely destroy someone’s life and steal over a million dollars from a school district. I’m sure some people will say my proposed punishment is excessive, but I’m obviously going to disagree. There were real consequences to the lies she told years ago, and Brian and the school district have already paid them.
Wanetta Gibson’s repercussions should be just as real.
Readers: If you were the judge and the jury, what punishment would you hand down on Wanetta Gibson?
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Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
Why send her to a women’s version of the maximum security prison when she should just be thrown in with all of the males. Then she’ll see first hand how it feels to “really” get raped. Now that’s punishment! I bet she would never lie again.
Really? You’re going to advocate the rape of another human being? No matter how low a life-form she is, that’s disgusting and shameful. No one deserves that.
Brian Banks didn’t deserve jail time and his life to be ruined. What Wanetta Gibson did was disgusting and shameful. Do you think he deserved that? Don’t you think people would open their eyes if they started to get severly punished for their actions?
What’s that? You murdered somebody? Oh, here’s 30 years in prison. Free rent, TV, food, gym, courtyard, etc.! Hmm… I wonder why criminals are set free and they are right back in prison. What a punishment.
I say we do what some countries do… you steal, you get your hand chopped off. I’m pretty sure people would stop to think before they commit a crime.
Cry wolf…. throw them to the wolves!
So using your thought process… Brian Banks, when he was still considered guilty, should have been raped instead of thrown in jail? What about people wrongly convicted of murder? Oops, too late, we already killed them? One innocent killed is one too many in my book.
Looks like it. Maybe Brian Banks should have never lied and said he was guilty.
Maybe we need a better court system…. Maybe we need more parents to raise their kids…. Maybe, just maybe, we should all just say……… Thank God it’s not us!
Anyone who refers to prison as “Free rent, TV, food, gym, courtyard, etc” is an idiot who has obviosly never talked to anyone who has served time. Ex cons return to prison in most instances because crime is all they have in order to survive. 7 years in prison doesn’t look good on a resume and finding employment is nearly impossible. But I assure you it is not their preference is not to return to prison.
I think the punishment you laid out is fair.
This disgusts me. She had better get severely punished for this.
I agree with you on almost everything.
Your “the justice system worked as it was supposed to” seems off to me. Anytime we send an innocent person to prison; justice was not served. We made a mistake. He at least deserves an apology.
However, he pled guilty and probably looked guilty at the time. I am not assigning BLAME to the system. This was an unfortunate incident; they likely followed the evidence and did their jobs correctly.
But let’s not pretend that the right thing happened. No matter how well you do any job you will sometimes get bad outcomes– sometimes without ever making a mistake. Unfortunately for some jobs like Prosecutors, Surgeons and military personnel innocent lives are sometimes taken. They have to live with that fact. If a surgeon has someone die on their table; they face the family, say they are sorry they did everything they could and proceed to say what went WRONG. They need not be at fault. I don’t understand why prosecutors can’t do the same.
Let’s not pretend that the system always works or go to the other extreme and say that is completely corrupt.
For Mr. Banks the system didn’t “work as it was supposed to.” No human system ever does.
As for Wanetta hopefully she’ll pay for her crimes on this side of death. Because the other side… well… that judge does have perfect justice.
I think she should return the money and spend 6 years in prison. This is one of the problems with rape. When girls lie it makes it harder for the real vistims to be treated fairly. Swift and just punishment will probably not occur, but it should.
I agree with you– Except how does that help Brian Banks in any way?
Unfortunately, nothing can compensate for the time and opportunities lost. He could sue her, but if the money is taken back, she has nothing. It is a bad situation and that is why people who commit perjury or make false accusations should be punished.
I see nothing wrong with the punishment you have suggested. Wannetta is as low a form of filth as an actual sex offender. I sincerely hope Brian is able to make it into the NBA and receives restitution of some kind.
What kind of fantasy world are you living in where you expect Wannetta to be able to pay the guy 6 point whatever million?
Exactly. Needs to have a job making about $530,000 a year so that after taxes she would have $300,000 and then hold that job for decades.
It is horrible what she did to him but I can’t be the judge of what to do with her. She’ll get what is coming to her but I hope she doesn’t ever live a comfortable life. Some prison would probably be a good lesson followed by permanent garnishment of 50% of her wages for the rest of her life to repay the guy and the school district.
I know our opinions usually differ a lot on these issues, but I’ll tell you straight up: I would gladly contribute a portion of my tax dollars toward putting this scumbag behind bars.
Women who falsely accuse men of rape are the reason that real rapes aren’t reported and dealt with like they should be. These stories reinforce the stereotype that women are money hungry and will stop at nothing to get their way. She ruined that poor guy’s life, and she totally deserves to pay back something (even though no dollar amount could ever equal the destruction she caused).
Wow, that’s a pretty depressing story, all in all. A few thoughts: first, I agree that paying the school back the money that was won (with interest) is definitely required; there’s no hope at all of justice unless that is done.
As for paying back Banks over $9 million, I think that’s a bit more questionable. There’s more than a few parties to blame for his jail time, from the defense lawyer who told him that he “was a big black teenager and no jury would believe anything I said” to the prosecutors who seemed to be more interested in creating a situation where he would confess (facing 41 years to life in jail if he went to trial and was convicted). Yes, Wanetta should be punished for her part, but she’s hardly the only one at fault here. (As a side note, using the case of Thaddeus Jimenez to determine the amount of money Wanetta (and her mother, whom I’ve come to understand actually collected that $1.5 million) should pay back seems a bit of a stretch; Jimenz sued the city of Chicago for police misconduct over the course of two trials, so using that for the standard a single girl should have to repay for perjury is a bit much. Now, for the standard Banks should shoot for as he begins a suit against the state of California…)
While we’re on the subject of Wanetta’s mother, one last thing to keep in mind: Wanetta was 15 at the time of this incident, and claims that the adults in her life messed with her head. I’m not saying this excuse her for what she’s done (and it definitely shouldn’t have prevented her from coming forward sometime earlier in the past ten years), but it is something to consider before we put all of the blame on her. Just my two cents on the matter.
The apple never falls too far from the tree. I don’t doubt for a minute that her mother owns a lot of the blame here.
But like you said, 10 years is a very long time.
Had the girl come clean 5 or 6 years ago, Brian Banks would still have had a realistic chance of living his dream.
Actions should have real consequences indeed and I’d say that your list is pretty thorough.
Problem is, that dimwit will never be able repay one tenth of what you propose even were she to live for two centuries.
Be that as it may, I’d add a good old fashioned bare ass spanking to her list of consequences. And I ain’t talking no patty cake either. A good 10 minutes or so booty dancing under a hard swung paddle would do that biatch a world of good.
LOL @ thinking she has a job or will get a job. She’s on welfare and will continue to be on welfare for the rest of her life. Take that away from her.
so sad Brian lost those 5 years … not sure anything she do can make it up to him.
I wish your punishment could be enacted. I will be nervous until I hear what punishment is dealt to this monster of a human, Gibson. I fear it will be too little, and it makes me mad that Banks is not going to take immediate legal action against her. What does that teach other people who have the capacity to do the same thing as Gibson? It is selfish not to take action against her. It needs to be done, if not for himself, for society, so this happens less!
They should let Brian put on some USC pad and tackle that bi*** 5 consecutive times while she’s gets egged from onlookers wearing her prison issued jumpsuit… or a black trash bag
They should let Brian put on some USC pad and tackle that bi*** 5 consecutive times while she’s gets egged from onlookers wearing her prison issued jumpsuit… or a black trash bag!!!
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Government takes her off welfare. Make here work. Payback all with interest. Government takes all from mom, after all 1.5 paid for it. This by means is compensation to banks, but two @#!&*? are not enjoying life much either. I hope banks is blessed, even more.
Isn’t prejurry still a crime. Will prosecutors need help with evidence?