Opinion ID: 1041292
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Codification ofDegrees ofRape

Text: 25 State v. Lynch (Jeffrey Thomas), No. 87882-0 (Gordon McCloud, J., Concurrence) The most significant substantive change accomplished in the 1975 reforms was probably the division of rape into three degrees. Under the old law, a defendant charged with rape faced a minimum sentence of five years' imprisonment. LAWS OF 1973, 1st Ex. Sess., ch. 154, § 122. The pre-reform statute did not distinguish between the rape crime's degrees of seriousness, 28 and reform advocates believed that this led juries to exercise their nullification power where a crime was less than the most brutal attack. 29 Prosecutors apparently shared this belief and were inclined to charge or accept pleas to a lesser offense, such as assault. 30 28 Id. at 2. 29 See Fleck, supra note 14, at 15 (One element all four proposed revisions have in common is the division of rape into degrees with graduated sentences, on the theory that convictions may be achieved for less aggravated rapes which might otherwise be acquittals.); Written testimony of Jean Marie Brough, supra note 13, at 2 (convictions would be more reasonably gained if there was a general lowering of penalties to fit the severity of the crime); Seattle Women's Comm'n, supra note 14, at 6 (we recommend that there be degrees of rape which will take into account the variety of elements which may enter into the crime, affecting its degree of seriousness, in order to avoid some of the most glaring defects of the plea bargaining system so that rape can be reduced to a lesser degree of what it actually is-rape-rather than to euphemism). 30 Loh, supra, at 558; see also Ron Clark, King County Prosecutor's Office, Testimony at Senate Hearing of the Rape Statute, S.B. 2196, 44th Leg., 2d Ex. Sess. (Wash. 1975) (Jan. 21, 1975) (on file with Wash. State Archives) (third degree rape [which is in] the Women's Commission bill and not the Bar bill would be preferable in that it would identify a sexual intrusion which might be classified under the Bar bill ... as assault). 26 State v. Lynch (Jeffrey Thomas), No. 87882-0 (Gordon McCloud, J., Concurrence) The reform statute addressed this problem by codifying three degrees of rape. 31 Under the current statute, first degree rape is characterized by the commission of a simultaneous burglary or kidnapping, the use of a weapon, or the infliction of serious physical injury/ 2 and is punishable by a minimum of three years' incarceration. 33 Rape in the second degree encompasses sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion under circumstances not constituting rape in the first degree, 34 sexual intercourse with a victim who is physically helpless or mentally incapacitated, 35 and sexual intercourse characterized by the victim's vulnerability and dependence on the perpetrator for certain care or services. 36 Rape in the third degree encompasses sexual intercourse under circumstances not constituting rape in the first or second degrees, where the victim clearly expressed a lack of consent or the perpetrator made a threat of substantial unlawful harm to the victim's property rights. RCW 9A.44.060(1 ).