Opinion ID: 2105000
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: constitutionality of sexual-assault statute

Text: The defendant also contends that the second-degree sexual-assault statutes, G.L. 1956 (1981 Reenactment) § 11-37-1, as amended by P.L. 1984, ch. 152, § 1 and § 11-37-4, as amended by P.L. 1984, ch. 59, § 1, if read literally, cause substantial constitutional problems because together they predicate a finding of unlawful sexual contact not on what defendant actually intended but on what some other person, either the complainant or the jury, could reasonably believe that he intended. We agree. Section 11-37-4 states that [a] person is guilty of a second degree sexual assault if he or she engages in sexual contact with another person   . Section 11-37-1 defines [s]exual contact as the intentional touching of the victim's or accused's intimate parts, clothed or unclothed, if that intentional touching can be reasonably construed as intended by the accused to be for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification or assault. A literal reading of this statute, without more, allows criminal liability without proof of mens rea. The question of whether defendant intended the touching to result in his sexual arousal or the like is never considered by the trier of fact. The existence of a mens rea is the rule of, rather than the exception to, the principles of Anglo-American criminal jurisprudence. Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494, 500, 71 S.Ct. 857, 862, 95 L.Ed. 1137, 1147 (1951). In Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 250-51, 72 S.Ct. 240, 243, 96 L.Ed. 288, 293-94 (1952), the Court stated: The contention that an injury can amount to a crime only when inflicted by intention is no provincial or transient notion. It is as universal and persistent in mature systems of law as belief in freedom of the human will and a consequent ability and duty of the normal individual to choose between good and evil. A relation between some mental element and punishment for a harmful act is almost as instinctive as the child's familiar exculpatory `But I didn't mean to,' and has afforded the rational basis for a tardy and unfinished substitution of deterrence and reformation in place of retaliation and vengeance as the motivation for public prosecution. The Morissette Court noted that this notion is so deeply rooted in American law that as the states codified their common-law crimes, even if the enactments were silent on intent, courts assumed that the omission was not indicative of disapproval of the notion but merely recognized that intent was so inherent in the idea of the offense that it required no statutory affirmation. Id. at 252, 72 S.Ct. at 244, 96 L.Ed. at 294. The Court recognized that exception to this rule which has evolved over time. That exception, however, deals only with regulatory offenses or public-welfare offenses and is not, therefore, relevant for purposes of this analysis. In addition the United States Supreme Court has stated that the constitutionality of a vague statutory standard is closely related to whether the standard incorporates a requirement of mens rea.  Colautti v. Franklin, 439 U.S. 379, 395, 99 S.Ct. 675, 685, 58 L.Ed.2d 596, 609 (1979). In Colautti the Court struck down a statute devoid of a mens rea requirement, stating that it [was] little more than `a trap for those who act in good faith.' Id. at 395, 99 S.Ct. at 685, 58 L.Ed.2d at 609 (quoting United States v. Ragen, 314 U.S. 513, 524, 62 S.Ct. 374, 379, 86 L.Ed. 383, 391 (1942)). This court has previously held that when the requisite intent is omitted from a criminal offense, such intent should be explicated in an instruction. State v. Lima, 546 A.2d 770, 772 (R.I. 1988) (citing Marcinski v. United States, 479 A.2d 856, 861 (D.C. App. 1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1224, 105 S.Ct. 1216, 84 L.Ed.2d 357 (1985)). In Lima we found reversible error when the trial justice failed to instruct the jury that in order to find defendant guilty, the jury was required to find beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant intentionally caused the victim harm. Lima, 546 A.2d at 772. Although in Lima we were dealing with a child-abuse statute, we deem such reasoning to be appropriate in the instant case. Thus we conclude that the trial justice committed reversible error in refusing to instruct the jurors that they were required to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant's contact with his niece was for the purpose of the defendant's sexual arousal, gratification, or assault, in order to convict under § 11-37-1 and § 11-37-4, the second-degree sexual-assault statutes. Absent such instruction the jury may have convicted defendant because he simply touched his niece, without finding that his intention in touching was to arouse himself or to gratify himself sexually. Lima, 546 A.2d at 772. Thus upon retrial we direct the trial justice to instruct the jury in accordance with the standard set forth above. Such instruction will protect the defendant from a conviction predicated upon an act devoid of mens rea as well as protecting a class of defenseless victims from abuse. Id. For the reasons stated, the defendant's appeal is sustained, the judgment of conviction appealed from is vacated, and the case is remanded to the Superior Court for a new trial.