Court Opinion

ID: 9676555
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:26:55.219901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:49.543532
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring specially).
Hanson’s claim that attempted rape was not committed falls on deaf ears, at this judicial window. A stranger, he accosted her in the store where she worked with suggestive language. Later, he grabbed her outside of the store and threw her to *140the ground. He entwined his legs around her and sat on her pelvic area. He ripped at her shirt and the smock supplied by her employer, trying to open them. His vocal overtures to have sex with him, accompanied by his force, creates an attempt to commit a crime under the definition of SDCL 22-4-1. Said statute, when tied in with the definition of rape under SDCL 22-22-1(1) establishes, in law, an “act.” It was for the jury to decide if his act was of such nature to be an “equivocal act” to ensure that the intended result was a crime and not any other innocent act. State v. Martinez, 88 S.D. 369, 220 N.W.2d 530, 531 (1974). An act is supposed to unequivocally demonstrate that a crime is about to be committed. Martinez id., 220 N.W.2d at 531. Very recently, this Court applied the Martinez analysis in a sexual assault appeal. State v. Haase, 446 N.W.2d 62 (S.D.1989). Surely, had this young lady not fought like a cougar, she would have been raped.