A California appeals court overturned the rape conviction of a man accused of pretending to be a woman’s boyfriend when he snuck into her bedroom and had sex with her, concluding that the law doesn’t protect unmarried women in such cases.
Citing an obscure state law from 1872, the panel ruled that an impersonator who tricks someone into having sex with him can only be found guilty of rape if he is pretending to be a married woman’s husband.
“Has the man committed rape? Because of historical anomalies in the law and the statutory definition of rape, the answer is no, even though, if the woman had been married and the man had impersonated her husband, the answer would be yes,” Judge Thomas L. Willhite Jr. wrote in the court’s decision.
What. The. Fuck?
What Steve said.
[...] When Is A Rape Not a Rape? In California… [...]
I’m speechless.
Show me the outrage. If legislators and prosecutors don’t drop everything RIGHT NOW and act immediately to correct this, I personally would applaud a little fighting in the streets.
Good analysis by Irin Carmon.