An Oklahoma criminal appeals court, the highest criminal court in the state, ruled that it is not illegal or classified as rape, to force someone into oral sex if the person is drunk and unconscious.
The judgment came after a 16-year-old girl pressed charges against a 17-year old boy for forced oral sodomy. The girl, who was unconscious from drinking, received a sexual assault examination, which confirmed the act. The boy’s DNA was found around her mouth and on the back of her leg; nevertheless, while the boy claims the girl consented to it, she doesn’t remember a thing. Unfortunately, under Oklahoma law, that is not rape.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals said in a unanimous decision that, “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 statute listed several circumstances that constitute force, not including incapacitation due to the victim drinking alcohol, despite Oklahoma’s separate rape statute that protects victims who were too intoxicated to consent to vaginal or anal intercourse.
Prosecutors initially charged the boy with first-degree rape and forcible sodomy, but dropped the rape charge due to the girl’s lack of recollection.
Hopefully, this ruling will ignite reformation regarding sexual-assault statutes.
