News Coverage

The Yale Rape Trial Isn't Over Yet

A criminal court cleared Saifullah Khan of the charge of raping a fellow undergraduate, but he's about to face a campus committee.

Mar 22 - The Weekley Standard

The March 7 acquittal by a New Haven jury of a suspended Yale student on charges of raping a classmate has been much lamented on campus and in the national media. But a review of the evidence shows that the trial was fair, the defense was ethical, and there was much more than a reasonable doubt about the accuser’s claim that she was so drunk as to lack the capacity to consent.
The facts of this he-said, she-said case are that Saifullah Khan, a then-22-year-old Yale senior, and his...

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Juror in Saifullah Khan Yale Rape Case Says Acquittal Was Justified: 'I Think He's Innocent'

"I think he doesn't deserve this, and I think it's sad."

Mar 12 - Reason

A jury acquitted former Yale student Saifullah Khan last week of committing rape on Halloween night in 2015. If you read Time, The New York Times, The Yale Daily News, or any number of other mainstream media outlets' coverage of the case, this verdict may seem like a travesty of justice, even a calculated counterstrike against the #MeToo movement.
Khan's defense attorney put the victim on trial, critics say, by asking her uncomfortable questions about her sexy Halloween costume, her...

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Defense attorney in Yale sex case defends tactics that brought a not guilty verdict

Mar 11 - New Haven Register

Attorney Norm Pattis, whose aggressive defense of a former Yalie led to the student’s acquittal on charges that he sexually assaulted another Yale student, says he has no regrets about his courtroom tactics but he feels “terrible” about “the ordeal” the accuser went through.
In a trial marked by high emotions and graphic sexual testimony, a New Haven Superior Court jury of three women and three men last week found Saifullah Khan, now 25, not guilty of sexual...

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A Yale Student Accused Her Classmate of Rape. His Lawyers Asked What She Was Wearing and How Much She Drank

Mar 9 - Time

How much did she have to drink? Why didn’t she wear a more modest outfit? Why did she and the man she later accused of raping her look “like two lovers” while walking together on campus? These are some of the questions that defense attorneys asked a Yale University student who brought a rape complaint against her classmate.
The questioning occurred during a rare criminal trial over a campus sexual assault case, and is all the more striking amid an ongoing national...

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Suspended Yale Student Acquitted in Halloween Rape Case

A jury Wednesday acquitted a former Yale student of raping a fellow student two and a half years ago. Now, he is seeking reinstatement to the university.

Mar 9 - Connecticut Law Tribune

A Yale University student has been found not guilty of raping a female peer on Halloween night in 2015.
A six-person jury deliberated three hours before rendering its verdict that 25-year-old Saifullah Khan had not raped the woman, who claimed Khan forced himself on her after the two had been drinking.
New Haven attorney Norm Pattis notched the victory, telling the Connecticut Law Tribune Wednesday afternoon that the trial lasted seven days.
“This was consensual. They...

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Full acquittal in Yale rape case; Title IX investigation would have never revealed Yale misconduct

Are campus police ‘a de facto arm of the campus bureaucracy’?

Mar 8 - The College Fix

Saifullah Khan predicted four months ago he would beat his prosecution on rape charges.
The ex-Yale University student was right – but he’d probably have a different verdict if his accuser had chosen a Title IX proceeding instead of one where Khan could have gone to prison.
The Yale Daily News reports that it took less than four hours for six jurors to acquit Khan Wednesday on all four counts – “sexual assault in the first, second, third or fourth...

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Former Yale student found not guilty of sexual assault

Mar 8 - New Haven Register

Saifullah Khan, who had been on trial on sexual assault charges, was found not guilty on all counts Wednesday.
The jury’s decision in the emotional and controversial case, announced shortly after 12:30 p.m., prompted Khan, now 25, to bow his head in relief. After court adjourned, he hugged his supporters and his attorney, Daniel Erwin. Co-counsel Norm Pattis was away on another case.
Khan had testified Tuesday that his accuser actually was the sexual aggressor who invited him...

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Yale Rape Verdict Shows How ‘Yes Means Yes’ Can Be Murkier in Court

Mar 8 - The New York Times

When a jury in the trial of a Yale college student on rape charges returned a verdict of not guilty on Wednesday, after barely three hours of deliberations, the message seemed clear: Evidence that might warrant punishment from a campus panel was insufficient for a court of law.
At the heart of the trial was the question of whether the complainant could have agreed to have sex with the defendant, Saifullah Khan, 25, on Halloween night in 2015, when the two found themselves in her dorm room...

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Former Yale Student Found Not Guilty In Rare Campus Sexual Assault Trial

Taking the stand for three days, the accuser maintained she had been too drunk to consent.

Mar 7 - Huffington Post

A man accused of raping a Yale classmate on Halloween 2015 was found not guilty Wednesday by a New Haven, Connecticut, jury after a trial of less than two weeks.
A woman referred to only as Jane Doe, now 24, accused Saifullah Khan, now 25, of raping her in her dorm room after she had vomited multiple times from drinking too much alcohol. Khan said that Doe had initiated the sexual encounter, which she said she barely remembered.
Khan was found not guilty on all charges of sexual...

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Suspended Yale Student Acquitted Of Rape Charges

Mar 7 - CBS Connecticut

A suspended Yale University student accused of raping another undergraduate student in 2015 has been acquitted of all charges, and his lawyer is calling on the school to reinstate him.
A state jury in New Haven on Wednesday found Saifullah Khan not guilty of four sexual assault charges.
The 25-year-old Afghanistan native was charged with raping a female student in her dorm room on Halloween night.
The woman told police Khan took advantage of her when she was drunk and raped...

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