The Trial Of Brian Banks

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In the summer of 2002, Brian Banks, a 16-year-old outstanding high school football linebacker from Long Beach Polytechnic High in Southern California had a promising future ahead of him. He had a verbal agreement to play for USC once he finished high school, but he had a lot of recruitment letters coming to him. Unfortunately, his future was cut short. Wanetta Gibson, a 15-year-old who also attended Long Beach Polytechnic, had accused Brian Banks of rape. That summer morning, Wanette and Brian were making out in the stairwell of the school, that night, Brian was being arrested for rape. Due to his arrest, Brian Banks could not finish high school. He spent a year in juvenile hall for a year before his trial. Banks faced 41 years to life due …show more content…

He came home from one of his jobs and noticed he had a friend request on Facebook; the name that has haunted him was in his inbox, Wanetta Gibson. He contacted her asking why she would want to be his friend and she simply responded “let bygones be bygones” and that they should “hook up” (Myers, 2015). He decided to take things into his own hands and hire a private investigator, hoping she would confess and let the truth be told. When the investigator asked if Banks had raped her, she replied, “Of course not. If he raped me, I wouldn’t be here right now. We were just young and having a good time, being curious, then all these other people got involved and blew it out of proportion.” What she didn’t know what that Banks had recorded the confession. Once she admitted it, he took the tape to The California Innocence Project, which got his case appealed (Almendrala, 2012). In one year, his record was wiped clean. Due to the confession, Gibson was ordered to repay $750,000 and $1 million to in damages to the school district. For the rest of her life, the school district will receive money from her future wages and property (Kandel,

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