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Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 57
History
- Referred to codes
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S6877
Title of bill
An act to amend the penal law, in relation to the offenses of rape in the first, second and third degrees
Purpose or general idea of bill
To amend the penal law to re-define rape as sexual intercourse, oral sexual conduct, anal sexual conduct and aggravated sexual contact.
Summary of specific provisions
The Act will amend the penal law by adding section 130.00(14) defining criminal sexual conduct as sexual intercourse, oral sexual conduct, anal sexual conduct, and aggravated sexual contact. Penal 130.25, 130.30 and 130.35 will be amended to replace sexual intercourse with criminal sexu- al conduct.
Effects of present law which this bill would alter
Re-define Rape in the First, Second and Third Degrees as sexual inter- course, oral sexual conduct, annal sexual conduct and aggravated sexual contact.
Justification
On March 28, 2012, a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court declared a mistrial on the rape charge against former New York City Police Officer Michael Pena. Pena was convicted of several other charges for holding the schoolteacher at gunpoint, threatening her life and forcibly sodomizing her. Pena was not convicted of rape despite over- whelming evidence of forcible, non-consensual sexual conduct with a Bronx schoolteacher. It is galling that in the face of evidence of the defendant's semen in the victim's underwear, redness to her genitals, eyewitness testimony and the victim's own account of the pain of the attack, Pena was not convicted of the top count of rape.
Common sense dictates that what happened to the victim in this case is rape.
This bill will re-define rape as criminal sexual conduct, rather than sexual intercourse, to avoid a future miscarriage of justice. Sections 130.25, 130.30 and 130.35 of the Penal Law will be amended to substitute criminal sexual conduct, which is defined as sexual intercourse, oral sexual conduct, anal sexual conduct, or aggravated sexual contact for the current element of sexual intercourse, which requires penetration.
Prior legislative history
None.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeeding the date on which it shall become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.