Do we live in a Rape Culture?

[GMDino]

Tulsa is changing their laws too:

http://oklahomawatch.org/2016/04/23/appeals-court-sodomy-law-doesnt-apply-to-cases-with-unconscious-victims/

Quote:Update, May 5
Rep. Scott Biggs, R-Chickasha, has introduced language into an existing bill that would amend the state's forcible oral sodomy law to include instances in which the victim is unconscious or intoxicated.
House Bill 2398 also changes the definition of sexual consent to state that consent cannot be given by a person who is asleep, physically incapacitated by drugs or alcohol, or is under duress, being threatened or being forced to perform a sexual act.


Update, April 28
State Rep. Scott Biggs, R-Chickasha, says he plans to amend a bill to include unconscious victims in Oklahoma's forcible sodomy law. In a news release, Biggs said, "“I am horrified by the idea that we would allow these depraved rapists to face a lower charge simply because the victim is unconscious. I think the judges made a grave error, but if they need more clarification, we are happy to give it to them by fixing the statute."

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Tulsa prosecutors say they are angry over a ruling by Oklahoma’s highest criminal court that the state's forcible sodomy law doesn’t apply when the victim is intoxicated or unconscious.

The decision by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals contrasts with a national push to step up enforcement of sexual assault laws and toughen rules of sexual consent.

On March 24, the Court of Criminal Appeals found that because of the way the state’s sodomy law is written, “forcible sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation.”

Rape and Consent: Trends in Oklahoma, U.S.

The ruling denied an appeal by the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office in a case arising from an incident between two high school students in 2014. The appeals court wrote that the original ruling in November by a Tulsa County judge dismissing the case was not in error.

Although Oklahoma’s rape law says a rape can occur when the victim is intoxicated or unconscious, the forcible sodomy law does not contain that language. The appeals court unanimously ruled that because the law lacks that provision, the defendant could not be prosecuted. The boy, who was 17 at the time, was charged as a youthful offender, meaning, if convicted, he could have been moved to a prison at age 19 if he didn’t meet certain conditions in the juvenile system.

As you can see their CURRENT rape law includes being intoxicated OR unconscious. But they are going further with their sodomy laws because they were incomplete.