COMMENTARY: Judges Should Use Tact in Presenting Their Oral Summaries

Last week, a female judge in Germany outraged women's rights groups and others, after she told a girl who was raped at the age of 15, "You could have run away."

Judge Luise Nunning found a 31-year-old convicted man -- who is currently serving three and a half years in prison for assaulting a girlfriend -- not guilty of raping the girl in Essen, Germany.

The teenager told the court that the attack happened during a party at the defendant's home.

We agree with the women's rights groups that the judge was wrong -- even heartless -- in criticizing the girl for not having run away from the rapist. Indeed, by making such a statement, the judge is implying that the girl did not run away because she wanted to be raped.

Moreover, such a comment by the judge makes the plaintiff -- in this case, the teenage girl -- appear to be the defendant by provoking the rapist.

If the judge believed that the girl did not try to separate herself from the rapist -- as the judge apparently did believe by finding the defendant not guilty -- that is all right. But the judge crossed the line when she insulted the girl by telling her she could have run away.

The fact is that judges need to use tact as they present their oral summaries to the court. For a judge to unnecessarily insult a plaintiff -- or to make a plaintiff appear to be a defendant -- in an oral summary is a sad way for justice to be carried out in a court of law.