To the editor:

I’m writing in response to the article about serial rapist Cory Elkins and his victims, including a woman called Sasha.

I’m distressed about several aspects of this:

1) The action of the KU Innocence Project in actively working to free a violent serial rapist is distressing to say the least. Did the Innocence Project not have enough truly worthy cases to pursue? Are there not enough wrongly convicted citizens? Are there not enough citizens with overly lengthly sentences that don’t fit the crime for whom they could advocate? Couldn’t they have chosen to study Elkins’ case but not acted on it? Did they really believe they were serving the cause of justice by working to free a violent rapist? There are ethical issues with the law that they could debate and learn from without actually helping a serial rapist get out of prison. What were they thinking? What kind of leader at KU Law chooses to support advocacy for a violent serial rapist?

2) If these victims had been men, would the DA’s office have felt the need to “protect” them from being re-traumatized? The actions of the DA’s office in prohibiting these women from participating in the process of sentencing review was sexist, paternalistic, demeaning and damaging. These women are suffering lifelong trauma because of Elkins. They worked tirelessly to get him convicted and put in prison, where he belongs. The Innocence Project and now the DA’s office have done the unthinkable: They truly have re-traumatized these women and put any community where Elkins eventually lives at serious risk.

3) It is obvious that the DA’s office made a grave error in judgment by not notifying Elkins’ victims of his resentencing. When the victims challenged this active negligence, the DA proceeded to throw the retired victim-witness coordinator under the bus. Until we see her recommendation in writing, we can only accept her statement to Sasha that this was not her recommendation.

I can only hope that there is a lot of soul searching at KU Law and in the DA’s office. Reducing the sentence of this violent rapist is a travesty of justice, and, yes, fraught with ethical dilemmas. Who is advocating for the victims of his violent crimes? Who at KU Law and in the DA’s office have acted ethically in this case?

Paul Winterhoff,

Indianapolis