Relates to the definition of term "sexual intercourse" as such term applies to sex offenses

1 Co-sponsor

• Martin J. Golden

BILL NUMBER:S4896

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to the definition of the term "sexual intercourse" as such term applies to sex offenses

Purpose or general idea of bill

To amend the penal law to redefine rape as any contact between the penis and vagina or vulva.

Summary of specific provisions

The Act amends the penal law by defining rape as conduct between persons consisting of contact between the penis and the vagina or vulva.

Effects of present law which this bill would alter

Clarifies Rape in the First, Second and Third Degrees.

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 overwhelming 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 redefine sexual intercourse as an element in the crime of rape as any contact between the penis and the vagina or vulva, rather than the current definition which requires penetration.

Prior legislative history

This is a new bill.

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect ninety days after it shall have become a law.