The Case
This page contains detailed information regarding the Steubenville assault case, as well as posts about and around the incident. If assault, cyberbullying, misogyny, or anything else regarding these terms triggers or disturbs you, feel free to click the button below to head back to the "Reach Out" page of our site for resources, support, and other opportunities to reground and educate.
Key Points
The Digital Evidence
There were hundreds of texts, photos, videos, tweets, and other evidence collected from Mays’s phone and other social media accounts. This evidence almost completely documented the assault, who did what, and who was truly to blame.
Lack of Physical Evidence
Although there was plentiful digital evidence that indicated Mays and Richmond had assaulted Jane Doe, there was little to no physical evidence that an assault had occurred. She was penetrated by Mays’s fingers but not by genitalia, which led to a rape kit coming back negative for semen.
Administrative Cover-Up
Several administrative staff and faculty at Steubenville High School were accused of hiding evidence and lying under oath to protect the school, its football team, and its reputation. Two faculty members were eventually brought to court, and one was convicted. He was given 80 days in jail with a year of community service.
Jane Doe's Testimony
Since Jane Doe was extremely inebriated, she did not remember the assault. She could only watch less than a minute of the video of her assault before breaking down, and therefore her testimony was not based on her own memory of the events but rather on her feelings afterward and other accounts of that night.
Social Media & Steubenville
From posting videos to various social media platforms to publicly tweeting about Jane Doe during and after the assault, these men showed their true personas right on their sleeve on the internet. For those who would argue, "They would never do something like that," or "They just don't act or talk that way," they left plenty of themselves and their actions on the internet that reveal exactly who they were.
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A 12-minute video posted where a former classmate referred to Doe as "dead" and joked about the assault.
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Another video of the actual assault that was later deleted.
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An Instagram photo of Mays and Richmond holding Doe, inebriated and on the verge of blackout, by her arms and legs.
Sexual assault cases often rely on a lot of "he said, she said" accounts of events, which can lead to conflicting information when the jury and judge must pick a side in the case. However, with this case the social media and digital evidence was so drastic that the conflicting accounts were almost null. Teenagers put their whole lives on the internet, and this case was one of the first involving sexual assault that showed how our usage of social media can come back to bite us.
Their Sentences
Scroll through the slides to learn more about Mays and Richmond's sentences, and if they are still in jail today.