On my Sirius XM Radio show "Leiberman Live At Five" on Howard 101, one of the hackers who decided justice wasn't being done in Steubenville, Ohio came onto my program and told me "I would do it again if I perceive an injustice".
I'm glad he did. In fact, on my program I called him a "hero."
No, I don't support hacking -- but I do support victims and I do support justice. "Noah" decided early on that he didn't believe the teen victim of a rape in Steubenville, Ohio was going to get justice. So he and a member of the group "Anonymous" admittedly took over a local website and posted a 12 minute video showing the drunken rants of a former Steubenville student who refers to the rape victim as "dead". Why did they do it? Noah told me it was because they didn't want a cover-up to bury the truth and they didn't believe anyone was listening.
The truth -- by all accounts -- is ugly. At a football party -- a 16 year old girl was raped. 17 year-old Trent Mays and 16 year old Malik Richmond have now been convicted in connection with the rape. What's more -- the drunk and unconscious girl was not only violated -- images of it were posted on social media. Moreover, tweets show many people connected to the incident were "proud of it."
It is sickening, in our society, that a rape can happen in front of dozens of people -- and 16 of those people have decided to remain silent. A grand jury will convene in April to see if any of these people have criminal culpability. I believe standing by and doing nothing and then refusing to speak to law enforcement should be prosecuted. We can't live in a society where silence is accepted when it comes to rape.
While unfortunate that the hackers felt they needed to release the video in order to get attention to this issue, I agree that it brought the case to the forefront -- and in many ways, it brought about justice. Is justice a year or two in jail for the perpetrators? Maybe not. But at the very least it sends a message that this behavior is abhorrent and won't be accepted.
Justice will be when this young woman can hold her head up high and know that she , too, did the right thing by doing the courageous thing and testifying against her attackers
You can watch "Noah" Wednesday night in an exclusive interview below with me -- done for www.wildabouttrial.com and make your own judgments. He says he will hack again if a rape case comes to attention and a victim isn't getting justice. He also says he has no regrets.