Relates to the offenses of rape in the first, second and third degrees; repealer

BILL NUMBER:S7240

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law, the criminal procedure law, the correction law, the social services law, the vehicle and traffic law, the family court act, the civil rights law, the civil practice law and rules, the agriculture and markets law and the judiciary law, in relation to sex offenses; and to repeal certain provisions of the penal law relating thereto

Purpose or general idea of bill

To amend the penal law to remove the penetration requirement from the rape statutes as well as to define rape as sexual intercourse, oral sexual conduct, or anal sexual conduct.

Summary of specific provisions

This bill removes the penetration requirement from the rape statutes, redefines rape to include oral and anal sexual conduct within the definition of rape and makes conforming changes throughout various areas of law.

Effects of present law which this bill would alter

This bill removes the penetration requirement from the rape statutes and redefines rape to include oral and anal sexual conduct within the definition of rape.

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, nonconsensual sexual conduct with a Bronx school teacher. 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 rape to include oral and anal sexual conduct, which are now referred to as "criminal sexual act," so that these other forms of sexual assault are recognized by the law as rape.

Prior legislative history

None

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law and shall apply to any offense on or after such effective date. As it pertains to the repealed sections of law, nothing in this act shall affect a requirement to register pursuant to article 6-C of the correction law; a lawfully required disclosure of a conviction; any restriction or prohibition for certain types of employment, housing, or government benefit; or any other ongoing matter related to a conviction of the sections repealed in this act.