17 February 2006

Rape Conviction Overturned . . .

. . . because the accused was not alloed to offer his defense: that he thought he was trading drugs for sex.

1 comment:

Mister DA said...

Doesn't seem all that odd to me. When I was a staff attorney at our intermediate appellate court I did a case report on a similar situation. The trial court view our rape shield statute as an absolute bar to the defendant's claim that the victim was prostitute and he'd ripped her off, resulting in a rape charge. Don't know what the result on remand was as the court's order was for the trial court to apply a then recent case of our supreme court and determine if there was a proper confontation clause basis for offering the evidence. If there was, a new trial would be necessary.