New York Expands the Legal Definition of Rape to Include Many Forms of Nonconsensual Sexual Contact
Source: US News and World Report/AP
Jan. 30, 2024, at 2:41 p.m.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) New York will expand its legal definition of rape to include various forms of nonconsensual sexual contact, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday.
The states current limited definition was a factor in writer E. Jean Carrolls sexual abuse and defamation case against former President Donald Trump. The jury in the federal civil trial rejected the writers claim last May that Trump had raped her in the 1990s, instead finding the former president responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse. The current law defines rape as vaginal penetration by a penis. The new law broadens the definition to include nonconsensual anal, oral, and vaginal sexual contact.
Highlighting Carroll's case at a bill signing ceremony in Albany, the Democratic governor said the new definition will make it easier for rape victims to bring cases forward to prosecute perpetrators. The law will apply to sexual assaults committed on or after Sept. 1. The problem is, rape is very difficult to prosecute," Hochul said. Physical technicalities confuse jurors and humiliate survivors and create a legal gray area that defendants exploit.
In Carroll's case against Trump, which stemmed from an encounter at a Manhattan luxury department store, the judge later said that the jurys decision was based on the narrow, technical meaning of rape in New York penal law and that, in his analysis, the verdict did not mean that Carroll failed to prove that Mr. Trump raped her as many people commonly understand the word rape.
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-01-30/new-york-expands-the-legal-definition-of-rape-to-include-many-forms-of-nonconsensual-sexual-contact
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,346 posts)Leghorn21
(13,524 posts)Not a moment too soon aaarrghhhh
IronLionZion
(45,442 posts)"if the president does it, then it must be ok" kind of mindset is deplorable.