MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Defense Attorney Steve Farese made his closing arguments in the high-profile rape trial of his client, Mark Giannini, on Thursday, but part of what he said has since put him on a nationwide stand.
“There’s always a reason behind a lie,” said Farese. “People can be very good at lying. Women can be especially good at it because they’re the weaker sex and we, that’s what the books say, and we want to protect them and not have anyone take advantage of them. At least I do.”
He made the comments in an attempt to discredit a woman accusing his client of rape.
However, Deborah Clubb with the Memphis Area Women’s Council said Farese’s words hit much deeper than the courtroom.
“It was such a stunner and then the word that came to me was ‘despicable’ because it is so unnecessary it seems to me in this date and time to label all women as liars in order to do some kind of strategy in a court case,” said Clubb.
WREG reached out to Farese to get his side of this, but he told us we made the story, so we can continue it. He also questioned us caring about the remarks he made over the rape suspect he’s defending and ended the conversation saying he’s not going to comment on it.
Another remark that took Clubb by surprise was when Farese said the prosecutors didn’t show what the victim was wearing when the incident was reported.
“They didn’t want you to see the top because it was a halter top,” Farese told the jury. “It was a sexy top. It was a contraption.”
“It just really needs to be really clear to everyone that what we wear, where we are, how old we are, what time of day it is, whether we’re drunk or not, whether we had a drink or not, nothing about our behavior gives men permission to do this unless we say very clear, out loud, ‘Yes, this is what we want to do,’” said Clubb.
She said she was hoping the majority-female jury in the case had a similar mindset.
“Women are everywhere in roles that require tremendous strength,” she said.
Farese is planning on representing Mark Giannini in two more rape cases down the road.
