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nbcnews.com 1/4/13
I admit to feeling a little smug reading this headline wondering what backwards land this took place in. The frontpage gangrape death in India has lead to more in depth stories about the plight of women's issues and wholesale corruption in Indian society. Barely a week goes by without a story about violence and oppression in Muslim countries. So I wondered where did this story happen. This story that harkens back to rape being a property crime against the man instead of a violent crime against the woman.
Any feeling of moral (or legal) highground went out the window when I saw what far fetched outdated 16th century land that this court case took place in. California.
A reminder that outmoded laws and ways of thinking are not something you need a passport to be a part of.
From the article.
The victim said her boyfriend was in the room when she fell asleep, and they'd decided against having sex that night because he didn't have a condom and he had to be somewhere early the next day.
Morales pretended to be her boyfriend in the darkened room, and it wasn't until a ray of light from outside the room flashed across his face that she realized he wasn't her boyfriend, according to prosecutors.
"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.
The appeals court added that prosecutors argued two theories, and it was unclear if the jury convicted Morales because the defendant tricked the victim or because sex with a sleeping person is defined as rape by law.
The court said the case should be retried to ensure the jury's conviction is supported by the latter argument.
