Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/933296
16 News maltatoday SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018 mt "Cause of death: poverty" OPINION RAPHAEL VASSALLO PG 24 REAMS have already been written about Judge Rosemarie Aquilina in the wake of the blistering verdict she delivered to Larry Nassar – former Olympic doctor accused of sexually molesting 156 young girls in his care from as far back as 1992; cases which rent families apart and even led to two instances of suicide. Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that pages upon online pages have been written about the hearings them- selves, rather than the Judge at the centre of it. "My secretary informed me that I have a growing stack of requests from print media, from television, from magazines, from around the world, literally. This story is not about me. It never was about me," Aquilina said soon after the case had done its first spin on the 24-hour media cycle, adding that if she had anything else to add, she would say it after the case has gone through its appeals stage. "You could hardly blame my interna- tional colleagues from pouncing on this piece of news, however, or for making it such high priority in their respective me- dia outlets." With a sanguine flair that some argued "crossed the line" of supposedly objective judicial behaviour, Aquilina told Nasser, point-blank, that with her verdict, she is, "signing [his] death warrant". Having already pleaded guilty, Nasser now faces a grand total of 175 years in jail, with Aquilina saying, "It is my hon- our and privilege to sentence you". To salt the wound further, Aquilina added, "Our Constitution does not allow for cruel and unusual punishment. If it did… I would allow some or many peo- ple to do to him what he did to others" – a comment that ran chills down many a spine, given that it doesn't take much to read between the lines and notice that this basically translates to, "I hope you get raped in prison". But beyond the both empowering and controversial language employed by Aquilina herself, the judge's decision to leave the floor open to Nasser's victims to detail their stories of abuse to their attacker's face is what really felt like a climactic moment, of sorts, for the '#Me- Too era'. Though this does not strictly go against any court norms, the sheer num- ber of victims was enough to make the move notable – also extending, as it did, the hearing to seven days – even more so given that it was all broadcast live, with the testimonies still available online. Predictably, Nassar himself was far from comfortable at the prospect of be- ing forced to sit through a recitation of The powerhouse Larry Nassar "The computer does it. God's giving them to me – if anybody is. I think certain things are put in your hands"