Also known as: rapes · raped · raping
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A criminal offense consisting of sexual intercourse without the victim's effective consent. Effective consent is absent when the actor compels submission by force or threat of imminent serious bodily injury, when the victim is unconscious or substantially impaired by intoxicants administered without knowledge, or when the victim is below a statutory age threshold. At common law the offense required penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ and treated certain frauds and threats as vitiating consent.
Roberto Reyes and an accomplice enter a home to commit robbery. During the crime Reyes forces sexual intercourse on the homeowner at gunpoint. When the homeowner resists and is killed, the prosecution charges Reyes with murder. The killing is treated as murder because the rape supplies the required recklessness and extreme indifference to human life.
Ricardo Rojas is convicted of raping an adult woman who survives the attack. The state seeks capital punishment. The court refuses to impose the death penalty because the sentence would be disproportionate to a non-homicide offense against an adult victim.
Rebecca Ross accepts a ride from Roland Rhodes after a party. Rhodes pulls the car over, brandishes a knife, and orders her to submit to intercourse. Ross complies out of fear of immediate serious injury. The act constitutes rape because the threat of serious bodily harm vitiates consent.
Rosalind Reed is convicted of raping a child who survives the assault. The state imposes the death penalty. The court vacates the sentence because capital punishment is disproportionate when the crime neither intended nor caused the child's death.
Ruby Rivera is convicted of rape and receives a sentence of life without parole for a first offense involving no additional violence. The court reviews the sentence under proportionality principles and finds it excessive given the gravity of the offense and the defendant's criminal history.
In 1964, 1966, and 1969 Jerry Helm was convicted in South Dakota of third-degree burglary. In 1972 he was convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses, in 1973 of grand larceny, and in 1975 of third-offense driving while intoxicated. All six offenses were nonviolent and alcohol contributed to each. In 1979 Helm was charged with uttering a no-account check for $100. He told the trial court he had been drinking in Sioux Falls, ended up in Rapid City with more money than he started with, and did not remember the incident, then pleaded guilty. Because he had three prior felony convictions in addition to the principal felony, the South Dakota Circuit Court sentenced him to life imprisonment without possibility of parole under the recidivist statute. The South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the sentence in a 3-2 decision. After Helm served two years, he asked the Governor to commute the sentence so he could become eligible for parole after serving three-fourths of a fixed term; the Governor denied the request in May 1981. Helm filed a habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota, which denied relief. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider the Eighth Amendment question.
View caseRoberto Reyes is arrested on suspicion of rape and interrogated without warnings about his rights. He makes incriminating statements that are later introduced at trial. The statements are excluded because the interrogation violated constitutional protections against compelled self-incrimination.
In March 1963 Ernesto Miranda was arrested at his home in Phoenix and taken to the police station where he was identified by the complaining witness. He was then questioned by two officers in Interrogation Room No. 2 for two hours. The officers did not advise him of any right to counsel. Miranda signed a typed confession that was introduced at his trial for kidnapping and rape. On October 14 1960 Michael Vignera was arrested in connection with a Brooklyn robbery. He was taken first to the 17th Detective Squad headquarters in Manhattan and later to the 66th Detective Squad. A detective questioned him for several hours without any advice concerning counsel. Vignera made an oral admission. He was then questioned by an assistant district attorney whose transcribed statement was also introduced at his trial for first-degree robbery. On March 20 1963 Carl Calvin Westover was arrested by Kansas City police as a suspect in two local robberies. Kansas City police interrogated Westover on the night of his arrest. The next day local officers interrogated him again throughout the morning. Westover was then turned over to FBI agents who questioned him for two to two-and-a-half hours about California robberies and obtained signed confessions. At the time the FBI agents began questioning Westover he had been in custody for over fourteen hours. On January 31 1963 Roy Allen Stewart was arrested at his home in connection with a series of purse-snatch robberies. During the next five days police interrogated Stewart on nine different occasions without any advice of rights. On the ninth session Stewart confessed. Transcripts of the interrogations were introduced at his trial for kidnapping rape and murder. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Miranda's conviction. The New York courts affirmed Vignera's conviction. The Ninth Circuit affirmed Westover's conviction. The California Supreme Court reversed Stewart's conviction. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in the four cases and consolidated them for argument.
View caseIntercourse accomplished by actual physical force or by threats of great and immediate bodily harm constitutes rape. The victim need not resist to the utmost when threats prevent meaningful resistance.
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Fraud that causes the victim to believe the act is not sexual intercourse renders the intercourse rape. A false promise of marriage or other non-sexual fraud does not.
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A woman cannot be convicted as a principal but may be convicted as an accomplice.
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The Eighth Amendment bars capital punishment for the rape of an adult woman or a child when the victim survives, because the penalty is disproportionate to a non-homicide offense.
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…physical deformity or mental deficiency," or that a pregnancy "resulting from legally established statutory or forcible rape or incest may constitute a threat to the mental or physical health of the patient," two other physicians "chosen because of their recognized professional competence have examined the…