A Minnesota man can't be charged with rape, because the woman chose to drink beforehand, court rules

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/03/26/minnesota-rape-alcohol/

By Marisa Iati March 26, 2021 at 9:28 p.m. EDT

After a 20-year-old woman took five shots of vodka and a prescription pill, she said she was standing outside a Minneapolis bar in May 2017 when a man invited her and a friend to a party. She agreed but soon found out there was no gathering, she later testified.

She “blacked out” instead, waking up on a couch and found that the man she had just met was allegedly sexually assaulting her, according to court records.

Almost four years later, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously ruled this week that Francios Momolu Khalil, 24, cannot be found guilty of rape because the woman got drunk voluntarily beforehand. The decision Wednesday overturned Khalil’s prior conviction of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, which had been upheld by an appeals court, and granted him the right to a new trial.

At issue in Khalil’s case was a state law that says a person is only considered “mentally incapacitated” and incapable of consenting to sex if they are intoxicated on substances “administered to that person without the person’s agreement,” like if someone spikes a punch bowl at a party. In Khalil’s case, Justice Paul Thissen wrote in an opinion, no one disputes that the woman chose to become drunk.

So, MN ladies: Next time your good-for-nothing ex refuses to pay child support and gets ripped in a local bar, that's your moment to take your revenge: He chose to get drunk, so, it's not your fault!

[keithbvadu2]

1. Kentucky trooper wants job back because raping that girl was just a 'moral mistake'

Kentucky trooper wants job back because raping that girl was just a ‘moral mistake’

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1014726959

[keithbvadu2]

13. 1+

[Bettie]

2. We posted at the same time. Unbelieveable

Hopefully the state legislature will fix the statute.

Here is a link with no paywall.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rape-victims-designation-drunk-voluntarily-minnesota-supreme-court/

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. A bill has already been introduced.

[Ms. Toad]

11. Good!

It's unfortunate that apparently no one who ever went to law school (and cared about women) read the statute carefully when it was adopted last year.

And, there will be a second bite at the apple in this case - so perhaps the prosecution will try to prove lack of consent by the fact that she was physically helpless (another means of proving lack of consent under the statute).

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. I strongly disagree with this ruling

[madville]

14. The court followed the law as written

Sounds like the original prosecutor charged under the wrong law that was meant to protect people involuntarily drugged.

[Hortensis]

4. So, voluntary drinking equals consent to any man who cares to hop on.

[MustLoveBeagles]

5. That's what it sounds like

[Ms. Toad]

10. That's what the MN legislature decided,

if the method of proving lack of consent was mental incapacity.

(There are other means of proving lack of consent, including being physically helpless because they were asleep, unconscous, or unable to express consent/lack thereof)

[MustLoveBeagles]

15. It sounds like the legislation is very flawed and needs to be fixed so this doesn't happen again

[Ms. Toad]

16. Yes. N/t

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. Apparently the state law was poorly written

Link to tweet

[Hortensis]

7. It certainly was, thanks. And should already be corrected.

How many legally immune rapes may have occurred because of this inexcusable mistake, if that's what it is.

[Ms. Toad]

9. The court had no choice it is a legislative blunder.

The second bolded comment comes almost direclty from the statute defining mental incpacity.

§Subd. 7.Mentally incapacitated. "Mentally incapacitated" means that a person under the influence of alcohol, a narcotic, anesthetic, or any other substance, administered to that person without the person's agreement, lacks the judgment to give a reasoned consent to sexual contact or sexual penetration.

Aside from the poorly written statute, there are other means to have dealt with this situation - so it may also be a prosecutorial misstep with a new statute.

Under the statute, the same provision permits a findning of Criminal Sexul Conduct (MN has no crime of rape) if the woman is physically helpless (which includes asleep, unconscious, or unable to say no).

Apparently the prosecution pursued mental incapacitation rather than physically helpless. They may be able to correct that on retrial.

[Maru Kitteh]

12. So, when I steal all of some drunk's jewelry and money

it's his fault then. Cool. What about say, if I want to sell his organs on the black market? I guess also cool, as long as he's drunk. He asked for it right? Drunk = consent.