S6877-2011 Actions

• Apr 2, 2012: REFERRED TO CODES

S6877-2011 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.

S6877-2011 Text

 S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 
 
                                         6877
 I N  SENATE
 April 2, 2012
 
 Introduced by Sens. YOUNG, GOLDEN -- read twice and ordered printed, and
 when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes
 AN  ACT  to  amend the penal law, in relation to the offenses of rape in
 the first, second and third degrees
 THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

 

Section 1. 

Section 130.00 of the penal law is amended by adding a new
 subdivision 14 to read as follows:

 14.  "CRIMINAL  SEXUAL  CONDUCT" MEANS SEXUAL INTERCOURSE, ORAL SEXUAL
 CONDUCT, ANAL SEXUAL CONDUCT OR AGGRAVATED SEXUAL CONTACT.
 

S 2. Subdivisions 1, 2 and 3 of  section  130.25  of  the  penal  law,
 subdivisions  1 and 2 as amended and subdivision 3 as added by chapter 1
 of the laws of 2000, are amended to read as follows:

 1. He or she engages in CRIMINAL  sexual  [intercourse]  CONDUCT  with
 another  person  who  is  incapable  of consent by reason of some factor
 other than being less than seventeen years old;
 2. Being twenty-one years old or more, he or she engages  in  CRIMINAL
 sexual  [intercourse]  CONDUCT  with  another person less than seventeen
 years old; or
 3. He or she engages in CRIMINAL  sexual  [intercourse]  CONDUCT  with
 another  person without such person's consent where such lack of consent
 is by reason of some factor other than incapacity to consent.
 

S 3. Subdivisions 1 and 2 of section 130.30 of the penal law, subdivi
 sion 1 as amended and subdivision 2 as added by chapter 1 of the laws of
 2000, are amended to read as follows:

 1. being eighteen years old or more, he or  she  engages  in  CRIMINAL
 sexual [intercourse] CONDUCT with another person less than fifteen years
 old; or
 2.  he  or  she  engages in CRIMINAL sexual [intercourse] CONDUCT with
 another person who is incapable of consent by reason of  being  mentally
 disabled or mentally incapacitated.
 

S  4.  The  opening  paragraph  of section 130.35 of the penal law, as
 amended by chapter 1 of the laws of 2000, is amended to read as follows:

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
 [ ] is old law to be omitted.
 LBD15244-02-2
 
       S. 6877                             2
 A person is guilty of rape in the first degree when he or she  engages
 in CRIMINAL sexual [intercourse] CONDUCT with another person:

 

S 5. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed
 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.

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