Source: sfchronicle.com 8/29/24 Prisoners serving life terms for violent sex crimes committed between ages 18 and 25 are not entitled to a parole hearing after 25 years, even though such hearings are available for some convicted murderers, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The so-called one-strike sentences, approved by the California voters in 2006 and expanded by the Legislature in 2010, made violent sex offenders ineligible for early parole hearings because of the seriousness of their crimes and the danger they could pose after release, the court said. Lawmakers reasonably…
Read MoreTag: rape
CA: California laws go easier on rapists who attack their spouses
[UPDATE: California Legislature Stalls Efforts to End Spousal Rape Distinction – newuniversity.org – 5/15/21] [sfchronicle.com – 5/12/21] Stanford law professor Michele Dauber thought pushing for changes to the state’s spousal rape laws would be a no-brainer. After all, this is 2021. In so-called progressive California. Why would anybody support old-fashioned laws distinguishing spousal rape from rape, making the latter subject to far more serious consequences? The legislature would surely rubber-stamp it and quickly move on. Nope. It can’t even get a hearing. “I’m shocked. Absolutely shocked,” said Dauber, best known…
Read MoreMN: What last week’s Supreme Court ruling actually said — and didn’t say — about sexual assault and drinking in Minnesota
[minnpost.com – 4/1/21] A 20-year-old woman was standing outside a Dinkytown bar in May 2017 when a man, along with his male cousin and another male friend, invited her and her friend to a party. They agreed, and the man drove them to a house. But when they arrived, there was no party. After arriving at the house, the woman — who had been denied entrance from the bar earlier for being overly intoxicated — passed out on a couch. She later woke up to the man, Francois Monulu Khalil,…
Read MoreTX: Ex-Baylor frat president indicted on 4 counts of sex assault won’t go to prison
[cnn.com – 12/11/18] Even though Jacob Walter Anderson was indicted on four counts of sexual assault, the ex-fraternity president won’t spend a single day in prison. Instead, a plea agreement allowed the former Baylor University student to plead no contest to a lesser charge of unlawful restraint. That means if the 24-year-old successfully completes three years of deferred probation and pays a $400 fine, his criminal record will be wiped clean of the charge, CNN affiliate KWKT said. Anderson will have to complete alcohol, drug and psychological treatment plans. But…
Read MoreWhat Rape Reform Needs: More Convictions, Less Punishment [opinion]
[thecrimereport.org] In what is being called the “Post-Weinstein era,” victims of sexual assault and harassment are finally being believed. This no doubt is overdue, but in the context of rape, believing the victim will not be enough. Three reforms are essential to how we convict and punish rapists. First, the way states currently define the crime of rape does not target the conduct of unwanted sex. In the United States, rape was initially defined by unwanted sex accompanied by an element of force. The proof of force was and continues…
Read MoreVA: Petition claims DNA proves innocence of Virginia man sentenced to 100 years for 1990 rape of 10-year-old girl
[Richmond Times-Dispatch] DNA proves a Virginia Beach man is innocent of the brutal 1990 rape of a 10-year-old girl who now doubts her courtroom identification of him as the assailant, contends a petition filed with the Virginia Supreme Court. ________, 45, convicted of rape, abduction, forcible sodomy and malicious wounding by a jury in 1991 and sentenced to 100 years in prison, has maintained his innocence, according to his lawyers with the Innocence Project at the University of Virginia School of Law. Read more
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