Karen Palmer, an anti-death penalty activist, describes the events one year ago on the night she was kidnapped and raped. Palmer talks about her ordeal and how she tried to humanize herself in the eyes of her attacker to help save her life. Palmer goes on to describe the police forces mishandling of her case and her subsequent complaints to the chief of police, in particular Palmer tells of how the police produced inaccurate, generic, racially cued composite drawings of her black attacker. Palmer also claims she was labeled a troublemaker and mistreated by the police. Dateline NBC reported on Karen Palmer’s story and produced a segment titled “screams in the night” after following Palmer for months. Palmer says that Dateline claimed to be interested in her story because she was a death penalty activist who was also a crime victim, however Dateline’s real motive was the fact that her rape occurred on the night of the O.J. Simpson Trail verdict. Palmer Tells of how Dateline focused on the racial aspect of the crime and O.J. Simpson and not on the problems of the police department in dealing with rape survivors.

Segment Subjects: Karen, Palmer, Rape, Dateline, NBC.