The slip opinions posted here are the latest electronic versions available from the Michigan Court of Appeals. Updates are posted as received from the courts. Consult the advance sheets and bound volumes of the official reports for final revisions and proper pagination. He was sentenced to five to fifteen years' imprisonment.
Defendant now appeals as of right.
On appeal, defendant argues that a plain reading of the statute indicates that the statute only prohibits sexual relations with persons who are unable to understand the physical nature of the act due to mental disease or defect. This is an issue of first impression in this jurisdiction. Defendant argued that whether the victim could comprehend the moral consequences of the sexual acts he engaged in with defendant was irrelevant, so long as the victim knew that the acts were occurring and was doing nothing to stop them. The prosecution argued that the victim could not appreciate the moral consequences of the acts, there was testimony to this effect, and therefore this element was proven. The trial court concluded that the legislative intent of the statutory language in question was to protect mentally incapable individuals because of their inherent inability to consent to sexual relations and found that without an understanding of the moral quality of the act, a person cannot intelligently and truly consent to such an act.