Opinion ID: 2311215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Unnatural Acts

Text: Insofar as the crimes regarding unnatural acts are concerned, defendants raise two defenses: first, that acts must be proved to be unnatural according to modern social mores and that therefore acts of cunnilingus and fellatio are not per se illegal between unmarried heterosexual couples, and second, that consent is a defense to the crime of unnatural acts in light of recent United States Supreme Court decisions regarding the right to privacy. Taking the last claim first, this defense was not preserved on the record at trial, so we need not consider it on appeal even if the acts in question here could be found to have been committed in private. We also hold that unnatural acts as used in the statute include as a matter of law, cunnilingus and fellatio. 81 C.J.S. Sodomy §§ 1-3 (1953, Supp. 1975). Indeed, it has been a long-standing tenet of this court that our statutory scheme goes beyond prohibiting only common law sodomy and includes those acts which are involved in this case. State v. Vredenburg, 91 N.H. 372, 19 A.2d 414 (1941); State v. Wickey, 108 N.H. 336, 235 A.2d 527 (1967). There cannot therefore be any basis for a claim of vagueness in these cases as to what is prohibited whether the acts are in fact unnatural or not.