Monday, February 07, 2005
Great. Ceasar's. Ghost.
How do legislators miss stuff like this? In Arizona, rape is a class 2 Felony, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. (This seems pretty lenient to me. Here in Georgia, the penalty for forcible rape starts at 10 years in prison.) But the real problem is the treatment of spousal rape. In Arizona, raping your spouse (who are we kidding, your wife), is a Class 6 felony, punishable by no more than 1 1/2 years in prison.
Different treaments for spousal rape are pretty common:
Yet because that bill died, spousal rape remains a Class 6 felony and can be reduced to a misdemeanor. It carries a lesser penalty than arranging a dog fight.And apparently, the momentum to fix it didn't really get started until something like this happened:
The 49-year-old woman was awakened around midnight by an assailant who choked her, dragged her by the hair and raped her so many times before the sun came up that she lost count, police say. When she asked if she would live, her attacker allegedly told her: "We'll see."Prosecutors are taking the novel claim that the "spousal" defense is unconstitutional, and charging the guy with standard rape. I wish them well, but I suspect the courts will give this one to the defendant, and that's probably the result the case law requires. I'd like to be wrong, but taking an affirmative defense away is probably not going to happen, however odious said defense may be.
Different treaments for spousal rape are pretty common:
About half of the states treat spousal rape differently from other types of rape, according to the American Prosecutors Research Institute, the research arm of the National District Attorneys Association.I guess I should be proud to be a Georgian, as Georgia treats spousal rape the same as any other variety of forcible rape.
Some states give women less time to come forward with a claim against a husband, or require proof that force was used. Most non-spousal rape laws require proof only that the assailant lacked consent.
Tennessee says spousal rape should be punished by three to six years in prison, while other rapes carry eight to 12 years. In South Carolina, aggravated spousal rape involving couples living together carries a maximum of 10 years in prison; roughly the same crime committed by someone else can bring 30 years.
