State v. Evans:
D convinces her to participate in his “study” about how men would
react to her. She agrees to go with him to NYC and later to his
apartment/office. D was disappointed that she failed the test and
that his advances were part of the experiment. He went on to say “I
could kill you. I could rape you”. They later engaged in sex
multiple times. He’s charged with 1st
degree rape –Does this deception qualifies as forcible compulsion
under the law? The court finds that what he said could be
interpreted as a threat of force but finds that it is not her
perception that is important – it is his
mind that counts! If he didn’t intend a
forcible threat, then it is not a threat and not rape… rape, like
other crimes, has a mens rea requirement!
- Deception/Fraud Issue: In this case, Fraud is NOT force and the statutory language requires force, thus no rape.
- One of the problems of making fraud a sexual crime is that it is part of normal sexual behavior! Ex: I will respect you in the morning / I have a lot of money, etc.
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