Trial Tuesday: Supporting survivors is an essential part of prosecuting a case
State v. Glymph, and what prosecutors owe survivors who have to tell their story out loud.
For many sexual assault survivors, the hardest part of the case isn’t only surviving the assault. It’s having to tell the story afterward.
As prosecutors, we ask survivors to recount deeply intimate and traumatic details to law enforcement, to medical providers, to attorneys, and finally to a room full of strangers in a courtroom. Learning how to support a survivor through that process is an essential part of prosecuting these cases.
What happened
Glymph and the victim met on a dating website and moved in together a couple of months later. The relationship became tumultuous. Glymph drank heavily and made derogatory comments about the victim’s previous relationship and the father of her children.
About a year after they moved in together, the victim tried to end the relationship, but allowed Glymph to stay in another room. Things remained on and off for some time. By April 2019, Glymph was no longer living in the home, but he kept sending her threatening messages.
One night the victim fell asleep and woke to a noise downstairs. As she walked toward it, Glymph met her on the stairs holding a knife. He told her he also had a gun. He forced her at knifepoint to her bedroom and then out to the living room, where he raped her while holding the knife against her back. She prayed that this would not be how her life ended.
Afterward, Glymph laid down on the couch with his arm around the victim’s neck. Terrified, she stayed still for hours, waiting for him to fall asleep.
When she believed he was asleep, she ran to her children’s room, barricaded herself and her children in the master bathroom, and called 911. When law enforcement arrived, she was still visibly shaking.
Glymph was convicted of multiple charges, including rape, kidnapping, and burglary.
A conviction is only one part of the case
Most people would be uncomfortable describing the intimate details of consensual sex to a room full of strangers. In a sexual assault case, we ask survivors to describe the intimate details of the most traumatic moments of their lives. Sometimes moments they genuinely believed they would not survive.
They are often asked to tell that story more than once: to law enforcement, to medical providers, to attorneys, and finally to a judge and jury. At trial, the defendant sits just feet away while she recounts what happened.
Survivors may feel embarrassment or shame. They may fear being judged or blamed, or worry that people will ask why they didn’t fight back. Trauma also affects the way a survivor remembers and describes what happened.
As prosecutors, we have a responsibility to understand those realities. Supporting a survivor does not mean telling them what to say, or shielding them from hard questions. It means preparing them for what to expect, listening to them, treating them with dignity, and creating an environment where they can tell their story as clearly and accurately as possible.
Because for a survivor, walking into a courtroom and telling the story can be the hardest part of the whole process.
Committed to Justice.