Last week, as Kentucky’s despicable Republican Gov. Matt Bevin left office, having been defeated in his re-election bid, he pardoned hundreds of rapists, murderers, and others without offering any real justification for it. It wasn’t a sudden show of leniency and nod to criminal justice reform. It was more like he was setting the state on fire to spite the voters.

It got worse yesterday, though, when Bevin was asked during a radio interview how he could have pardoned Micah Schoettle, who was convicted of raping a nine-year-old girl.

Bevin’s response? The victim’s body was examined, and her hymen was intact, therefore she must not have been raped.

Bevin also revealed publicly for the first time the victim’s relationship to Schoettle and said that the victim’s sister was present during the alleged assaults. The sister has denied the assaults took place, Bevin said. “Both their hymens were intact. This is perhaps more specific than people would want, but trust me. If you have been repeatedly sexually violated as a small child by an adult, there are going to be repercussions of that physically and medically,” Bevin said.

Who knew Bevin and rapper T.I. had something in common? They both believe the myth that the condition of a woman’s hymen is scientific proof of their sexual history.

An expert who spoke with the Courier-Journal pulled no punches in his own analysis of Bevin’s claim, calling it blatantly false before adding one hell of a kicker:

Bevin’s claim is flatly incorrect, Dr. George Nichols, who was Kentucky’s chief medical examiner for 20 years and later started the child abuse evaluation system at Kosair Children’s Hospital, told The Courier Journal. “Rape is not proved by hymen penetration,” Nichols said. “Rape is proved by phallic penetration … where the vaginal lips meet the outer surface of the vagina. “He not only doesn’t know the law, in my humble opinion, he clearly doesn’t know medicine and anatomy.” Nichols added that he worked for six consecutive governors as chief medical examiner, “and fortunately I didn’t have to report to that a–hole.”

How do I vote for that guy…?

Nichols is right though. Bevin is just making up this justification as if it’s based on science, when it’s not. He’s letting a rapist go free because of nothing. And his anti-science ignorance is hurting the people in Kentucky even after he’s left office.

What he did was awful. What he’s doing to the victim’s family is cruel. And don’t forget that the only reason he had this power at all is because conservative Christians kept supporting him even when it was beyond clear that he was an ideologue with no business in public office.

