Friday, April 29, 2016
An appeals court in Oklahoma has set off a fierce debate after it ruled that oral sex with an individual while they’re unconscious due to alcohol intoxication is not rape.
The ruling stems from a 2014 case involving a 17-year-old-boy accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl after offering her a ride to her grandmother’s house.
According to The Guardian, the 16-year-old was unconscious when she was dropped off. She was taken to the hospital and given a test where her blood alcohol content was .34, which is more than four times the legal limit for driving a vehicle. The girl was taken to the hospital where a sexual assault examination was performed. The test confirmed that the boy’s DNA was discovered around the girl’s mouth and on the back of her legs.
The 17-year-old claimed the girl consented to performing oral sex, but she told police she could not remember anything that happened that night.
Witnesses told police the girl “was drunk” and two individuals had to carry her to the boy’s car.
The 17-year-old was charged with forcible oral sodomy.
The case was thrown out by a trial judge and his ruling was upheld by The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. In a unanimous decision, the court said, “Forcible sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation.” The court said its ruling is based on current state law which is silent on the issue of incapacitation due to alcohol intoxication.
Critics are outraged, but legal scholars say the decision is in accordance with Oklahoma state law, which protects those who are unable to consent to vaginal sex, but not oral sex.