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It May Not be Rape, but It’s Still a Scumbum Move
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court has unanimously ruled that sex via fraud is not rape. The case stems from a situation where 44-year-old Alvin Suliveres, a helluva guy, tricked his brother’s girlfriend into sleeping with him by pretending to be his brother. The Boston Globe explains what happened:
Duane Suliveres , now 33, was working night shifts, the brief said. At 3 a.m., the woman later told authorities, she was awakened by the sound of the door opening to the dark room and said, “Duane, why are you home so early?” but heard no response. Then, she said, someone she thought was her boyfriend got into bed, removed her clothes, and had sex with her for about 10 minutes.He got up and opened the door, and she saw that it was Alvin Suliveres, she told authorities.
Alvin was arrested and charged with rape. The case made its way up to MA’s high court, which ruled that this situation doesn’t meet the definition of rape, which is where someone has sex against their will because of force used against them. The Court went on to say that it was up to the Legislature to criminalize sex obtained through fraud, if it wants to do so (and as several other states have already done, in fact).
And two state representatives (both former prosecutors) are already taking the Court’s lead, drafting a bill which would criminalize sex obtained through deceit.
Comments
Good for those Reps. I hope that bill passes.
Posted by Andre | May 14, 2007 12:44 PM
This is why we need degrees of rape, like we have degrees of murder. But instead of being an intent-based system, it would be a force-based system. First degree would be non-consensual sex by force or threat of force. Second degree could be non-consensual sex by other means, like deceit or duress.
This way, date rape won't be punished as harshly as violent rape, but will be punished.
Posted by three elle (formerly two elle) | May 14, 2007 5:05 PM
Why shouldn't date rape be punished as harshly as so-called "violent" rape? Usually date rape does involve violence, or at least force - the difference is just that the woman usually knows the rapist, which in my opinion is in some ways worse than an anonymous attack. There's a measure of trust that goes into agreeing to a date, and that trust is more than betrayed when the date takes such a horrifying turn.
Posted by Melissa | May 14, 2007 6:57 PM
Coming from the UK perspective I was instantly reminded of another case involving a would be Romeo, and a fine example of bone dry judicial wit!
http://uce2003els.studio400.me.uk/R-v-Collins_1972.PDF
Enjoy.
Posted by Peter Allen | May 17, 2007 2:06 PM