All right Jim Hines, if you're going to write a column on a criminal case ("Bryant's court proceedings provide valuable advice: 'Be sure'" SN 9/14), wouldn't it behoove you to consult someone with a relevant legal background about the basic elements and differences between the criminal and civil court system?

Much like the rest of this country, you make a lot of conclusions based on uneducated and biased assumptions. For your and Kobe's protection, the criminal court system assumes that everyone is innocent until proven guilty - not the other way around. Unfortunately, I had friends in undergrad who were accused of rape and consequently vilified by the entire community before the actual facts were ever made public.

Rumors and assumptions - much like what you wrote - have no place in our criminal court system. This is not to say that victims shouldn't be protected, but they have to be actual victims first, and that is what the court system decides.

Get your "facts" straight before you publish and give the public proof that you don't have a clue about what you are talking about.

M. J. Levine
MSU College of Law student