Opinion ID: 2167084
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: 1976 and 1989 Legislation

Text: The relevant 1976 legislation originated with Senate Bill 358, which was the product of a legislatively created Special Committee on Rape and Related Offenses. As introduced, the bill would have repealed the common law of rape and, through new sections 462 through 464C of Article 27 of the Maryland Code, included the conduct constituting that crime in one or more new statutory sexual offenses. A major thrust of the bill, in that regard, was to treat unlawful vaginal intercourse more or less the same as other unlawful kinds of sexual assault. It also provided, in its initial form, that a person could not be prosecuted under the new subtitle if the complainant is the person's legal spouse unless the parties are living separate and apart, pursuant to court order. In supporting that limited provision, the then-extant Governor's Commission to Study Implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment (which amendment had been added to the Maryland Constitution in 1972) noted as one of the problems with the existing law that [t]he word `unlawful' in the common law definition of rape has been interpreted by the Maryland courts to mean that a person cannot rape his spouse even if the couple is living separate and apart. [5] Ultimately, as the result of extensive amendments made to the bill by the House of Delegates, the crime of rape was retained as a statutorily defined offense but was split into two degrees, and four degrees of other sexual offenses were created. Under the law, as enacted, first degree rape (§ 462) is defined as vaginal intercourse by force or threat of force against the will and without the consent of the other person, accompanied by (1) the use or display of a dangerous weapon, (2) suffocation, strangulation, disfigurement, or other serious physical injury, (3) placing the victim in fear that the victim or a person known to the victim will be imminently subjected to death, suffocation, strangulation, disfigurement, serious physical injury, or kidnaping, or (4) the perpetrator being aided or abetted by one or more other persons. Second degree rape (§ 463) consists of vaginal intercourse (1) by force or threat of force against the will and without the consent of the victim, or (2) with a person who is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless and the perpetrator knows or should know that the victim has that condition. The four degrees of other sexual offenses, defined in §§ 464 through 464C, are principally based on a sexual contact or a sexual act other than vaginal intercourse, accompanied by varying forms of aggravation. Sexual contact is defined as the intentional touching of any part of the victim's or actor's anal or genital areas or other intimate parts for purposes of sexual arousal or gratification or for abuse of either party, including the penetration by any part of a person's body, other than the penis, mouth or tongue, into the genital or anal opening, if that penetration can be reasonably construed as being for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification, or for the abuse of either party. § 461(f). A sexual act is defined to exclude vaginal intercourse but to include cunnilingus, fellatio, analingus, anal intercourse, and the penetration by any object into the genital or anal opening of another person's body. § 461(e). First and second degree sexual offenses are essentially parallels to first and second degree rape. A first degree sexual offense (§ 464) consists of engaging in a sexual act with another person under the same conditions that, if the act were vaginal intercourse, would constitute first degree rape; a second degree sexual offense (§ 464A) consists of engaging in a sexual act with another person under circumstances that, if the act were vaginal intercourse, would constitute second degree rape. [6] A third degree sexual offense (§ 464B) consisted of (1) a sexual contact against the will and without the consent of the other person accompanied by any of the other aggravating factors included as elements of first or second degree rape or first or second degree sexual offense; (2) sexual contact with a person who is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless; (3) sexual contact with another person under the age of 14 if the perpetrator is four or more years older than the victim; or (4) a sexual act or vaginal intercourse with another person 14 or 15 years old if the perpetrator is at least 21 years of age. A fourth degree sexual offense (§ 464C) was defined as (1) a sexual contact against the will and without the consent of the victim, or (2) a sexual act or vaginal intercourse with a person 14 or 15 years old by a person at least four years older than the victim but not yet 21 years of age. [7] Having established and defined those substantive offenses, the General Assembly turned its attention to the marital exemption. In § 464D, it provided that a person may not be prosecuted under Sections 462 [first degree rape], 463 [second degree rape], 464B [third degree sexual offense], and 464C [fourth degree sexual offense] if the victim is the person's legal spouse at the time of the commission of the alleged rape or sexual offense unless the parties are living separate and apart pursuant to a decree of divorce a mensa et thoro. With this formulation, the Legislature, on the one hand, expressly recognized and confirmed a general marital exemption for those offenses but, as to those offenses, chose to treat parties who were living apart pursuant to a decree of limited divorce as though they were not married at all and were, in effect, legal strangers to one another. In that limited circumstance, a husband was made subject to the same liability for engaging in the proscribed conduct against his wife as he would be if he committed it against any other woman. [8] There is nothing in the legislative history of the 1976 legislation to indicate that the General Assembly, in creating the new statutory offenses, in codifying a general marital exemption with respect to first and second degree rape and third and fourth degree sexual offenses, and in making that exemption inapplicable in the limited circumstance noted, gave any thought, one way or the other, to the separate common law crime of attempt. There is nothing to suggest that it ever accepted or rejected the doctrine of legal impossibility as discussed, but not adopted, by the Court of Special Appeals in Waters v. State, supra, 2 Md.App. 216, 234 A.2d 147, and In re Appeal No. 568, Term 1974, supra, 25 Md.App. 218, 333 A.2d 649. To the extent that the doctrine of legal impossibility, as applied to the common law crime of attempt, ever was a part of Maryland common law, subjection of persons to liability for a completed first or second degree rape or third or fourth degree sexual offense committed against the person's estranged spouse (living apart pursuant to a decree of limited divorce) abrogated the legal impossibility and thus removed the foundational underpinning of the legal impossibility doctrine. With that underpinning removed, there was no basis for exempting the perpetrator from prosecution for conduct constituting an attempt to commit those offenses. Indeed, in the limited circumstance in which prosecution for the completed offense was permitted, there is no reason to suppose that the General Assembly did not intend that result. As we indicated, at least with respect to those offenses, it effectively chose to treat a married couple living apart pursuant to a limited divorce decree as though they were not really married. Certainly, in that circumstance, there could be no greater expectation of an implied consent to sexual intimacy or to what otherwise would be legally inappropriate touchings than there would be if the marriage had, in fact, been dissolved and the parties were legal strangers to one another. That is not, of course, the situation now before us, but it is relevant as a backdrop to what the Legislature did in 1989. In 1989, the General Assembly reconsidered the exemption it had provided in the 1976 legislation. The impetus for that effort was a significant and growing concern over violent sexual assaults both within the marital home and during periods of separation not sanctioned by a limited divorce. [9] House Bill 399, enacted as 1989 Md. Laws, ch. 189, amended § 464D to (1) extend the circumstances under which a person may be prosecuted for sexual offenses against his or her estranged spouse, and (2) permit a person to be prosecuted for a more limited range of sexual offenses committed against the person's spouse, even if the parties were still living together. With respect to offenses against an estranged spouse, the law kept in place, as new § 464D(d), the 1976 law allowing the prosecution of a spouse for first or second degree rape and for a third or fourth degree sexual offense when committed against a spouse who has been living separate and apart without cohabitation and without interruption pursuant to a decree of limited divorce. As a new provision, § 464D(b) permits prosecution under §§ 462(a), 463(a)(1), 464B(a)(1)(i), and 464B(1)(ii) for an offense against the person's legal spouse if the parties have lived separate and apart without cohabitation and without interruption pursuant to a written separation agreement or for at least six months immediately before the commission of the alleged rape or sexual offense. Under that provision, the person can be prosecuted for (1) first degree rape (§ 462(a)), (2) second degree rape when the vaginal intercourse is committed by force or threat of force against the will and without the consent of the victim (§ 463(a)(1)), (3) a third degree sexual offense involving sexual contact against the will and without the consent of the victim and the employment or display of a dangerous or deadly weapon or article which the victim reasonably concludes is a dangerous or deadly weapon (§ 464B(a)(1)(i)), or (4) a third degree sexual offense involving sexual contact against the will and without the consent of the victim and the infliction of suffocation, strangulation, disfigurement, or serious physical injury upon the victim or someone else in the course of committing the offense (§ 464B(a)(1)(ii)). Excluded from the new provision is (1) a second degree rape based on the involvement of a mentally defective, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless victim or a victim under 14 years of age, (2) a third degree sexual offense accompanied only by threats of harm, or based on the involvement of other persons as aiders or abetters or a mentally defective, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless victim or a victim under 14 years of age, and (3) a fourth degree sexual offense. Finally, in this regard, under new § 464D(c), the Legislature authorized the prosecution of a person for those same offenses§§ 462(a), 463(a)(1), 464B(a)(1)(i), and 464B(a)(1)(ii)but only if the person uses actual force [not merely the threat of force] against the will and without the consent of the person's legal spouse. As was true in 1976, there is nothing in the legislative history of the 1989 law to indicate that the General Assembly gave any express consideration to the effect of the Act on the common law crime of attempt. Although much of the written material presented to the legislative committees was couched in terms of marital rape, much of it also complained about the broader problem of sexual violence and abuse committed by one spouse against another, both within the marital home and after separation. [10] The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Bill Analysis and Floor Report on the bill stuck closely, in its summary, to the actual provisions of the bill, commenting: This bill permits the prosecution of a person for certain specified sexual offenses committed against the will and without the consent of the person's legal spouse, including first degree rape, second degree rape involving force or threat of force, and third degree sexual offenses involving a dangerous or deadly weapon or the infliction of suffocation, strangulation, disfigurement or serious physical injury upon the victim or anyone else in the course of committing the offense, if the person and the person's legal spouse have lived separate and apart without cohabitation and without interruption pursuant to a written separation agreement executed by both spouses for at least 6 months immediately before the commission of the alleged offense. The bill also permits prosecution for the same specified sexual offenses committed by a person against the person's legal spouse, regardless of whether the parties are separated, if the person uses force against the will and without the consent of the person's legal spouse. Appellant's argument that a husband cannot be convicted of an attempted second degree rape of his wife rests on the proposition that no such crime existed at common law. On that premise, he urges that, in specifying only the completed crimes in the 1989 statute, the Legislature did not intend to create any new statutory offense of attempted second degree rape by a husband against his wife and that, under the doctrine of lenity and the complementary rules that penal statutes and statutes in derogation of the common law are to be construed strictly, we should not infer any such intent. In considering that argument, it is important to understand that, as framed, the argument necessarily would apply not only in the circumstance where the parties are still living together (§ 464D(c)), but also when they are separated, even when they are separated pursuant to a decree of limited divorce (§ 464D(d)), for the Legislature said nothing more about the crime of attempt in those circumstances, in either 1976 or 1989, than it did with respect to the case of parties still living together. If, because of legislative silence, a husband cannot be convicted of attempting to rape a wife with whom he is then living (§ 464D(c)), he also cannot be convicted of attempting to rape his wife from whom he has been continuously separated pursuant to a decree of limited divorce (§ 464D(d)). Unfortunately for appellant, the assumption upon which his argument rests is a fallacious one. It is not a matter of whether the Legislature created, or intended to create, a new crime of attempt that did not exist at common law. Although, as we indicated, the Legislature does occasionally opt to make certain kinds of attempts statutory offenses, it is rare that, in creating, expanding, or contracting substantive crimes, it gives any express attention to the tag along common law crime of attempt (or conspiracy or assault with intent to commit the new or amended crime). There is, indeed, no need for it to do so, for, as we noted in Cox v. State, supra, 311 Md. at 330, 534 A.2d at 1335, the crime of attempt automatically expands and contracts and is redefined commensurately with the substantive offense. Thus, attempted second degree rape became a common law misdemeanor in Maryland in 1976, when the General Assembly created the substantive crime of second degree rape, and if a husband was immune from prosecution for that crime, or for the predecessor crime of attempted common law rape, it was only to the extent that he was protected by (1) a marital exemption with respect to the completed crime, and (2) the doctrine of legal impossibility that flowed from that exemption. These earlier doctrines, however, were significantly limited in the 1976 and 1989 statutes. With respect to first degree rape, the forcible variety of second degree rape, and the included forms of third degree sexual offense, it is no longer legally impossible for a husband to be convicted based on conduct committed against his wife. The marital exemption has been clearly abrogated with respect to that conduct, and with that abrogation, the entire foundation for any supposed immunity against prosecution for the separate crime of attempt disappeared. It is not a matter of lenity or of strict construction of statutes. The legislative intent to remove any marital exemption for the substantive offenses is absolutely clear and unmistakable; liability for criminal attempt simply follows as a matter of course. In support of his argument, appellant mischaracterizes the kind of conduct at issue. He states in his brief: The General Assembly apparently concluded that acts such as embracing, holding, pushing, touching, and kissing, which normally would constitute force to support a rape conviction should not be criminalized where the aggressor spouse is unsuccessful in his attempt to force the resisting spouse to engage in sexual intercourse. The General Assembly probably believed that the resisting spouse's success in refusing to do something which she had willingly done many times before indicates, in most cases, that the aggressor spouse's conduct was less blameworthy than if he had applied enough force to compel sexual intercourse. We would respond, first, that there is no basis whatever in the legislative history of either the 1976 or the 1989 legislation for those assumptions or conjectures. As noted, although much of the emphasis was on marital rape, there was deep concern expressed about other forms of sexual assault and violence among spouses as well. Moreover, to gain a conviction of attempted second degree rape, the State would have to prove a great deal more than mere embracing, holding, pushing, touching, and kissing. As we indicated, to prove attempted rape, the State must establish both an existing intent to commit the substantive crime and conduct beyond mere preparation in furtherance of that intent. In order to gain a conviction of attempted second degree rape under § 464D(c), the State would thus have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, an intent by the husband to engage in vaginal intercourse by actual force (not merely the threat of force) and against the will and without the consent of his wife, and conduct in furtherance of that intent. It is not likely that mere embracing, holding, pushing, touching, or kissing, discontinued upon direction or resistance by the spouse, would suffice, without more, to establish the requisite intent. See Wiley v. State, 237 Md. 560, 564, 207 A.2d 478, 480 (1965): if one who has intended to commit a crime freely and voluntarily abandons the idea before it has progressed beyond mere preparation, he has not committed the crime of attempt. The Legislature was very careful and deliberate in determining the circumstances under which the marital exemption was to be allowed or not allowed. As previously noted, where the parties are separated pursuant to a decree of limited divorce, a person is liable for all of the rape and sex offenses, to the same extent as if the victim were not his or her spouse. In that circumstance, there was clearly intended a total repudiation of any marital exemption, including even for conduct constituting a fourth degree sexual offense. If the parties are either still living together or have not been continuously separated pursuant to a decree of limited divorce, however, they retain the marital exemption for conduct constituting a fourth degree sexual offense. If the parties are still together, the exemption is also retained for the rape offenses and third degree sexual offense unless committed by actual force. In so delineating spousal liability, the Legislature carefully balanced the right of every person to be free from sexual violence and abuse with the social and cultural realities that inhere in marriage. It had before it substantial evidence that similar kinds of laws passed in other States had not produced an avalanche of frivolous or spiteful complaints. We hold that, to the extent a person may be convicted of any of the substantive offenses set forth in §§ 462 through 464C, he or she is also subject to prosecution for attempting to commit those offenses. See State v. Rittenhour, 112 Ohio App.3d 219, 678 N.E.2d 293 (1996) and People v. DeLarosa, 172 A.D.2d 156, 568 N.Y.S.2d 47 (1991), upholding convictions against a husband for attempting to rape his wife.