Court Opinion

ID: 9847842
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:08:36.604226+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:38.352604
License: Public Domain

HARRIS, Justice
(dissenting).
I agree with defendant’s assertion the State has failed to present a jury question on the element of resistance and I therefore respectfully dissent.
I. Both force by the defendant and resistance by the victim are elements of the crime. State v. Holoubek, 246 Iowa 109, 66 N.W.2d 861. See also 75 C.J.S. Rape § 12, pages 474-477 ; 65 Am.Jur.2d, Rape, section 5, page 764. According to these authorities the requirement of the showing utmost resistance is obviated only where there is “constructive force.” This can arise where the female is under the age of consent, is for some other reason incapable of giving consent, or gives it through threats or fear. Where, as here, a claim is made the victim has yielded in fear it must be shown the yielding was the result of the fear caused by force actually used or the threat of great bodily injury. State v. Holoubek, supra. See also 75 C.J.S. Rape § 15, page 481; 65 Am.Jur.2d, Rape, section 11, page 767.
Here there was no showing of any resistance on the part of the complaining witness. She made no claim she in any .way resisted. She did testify of an unlikely assault and battery and of an attempted escape. But the State in no way connected this testimony with the act of intercourse. Necessary but missing is the sort of showing made in State v. Holoubek, supra:
“ * * * [The record] shows that so far as physical resistance is concerned, prosecutrix offered little, if any. ’ It is her claim that defendant threatened harm to [another] and to her if she fought or screamed, and it was due to fear that such would occur that more resistance was not offered. The trial court correctly instructed the jury that the burden was upon the State to show that prosecutrix exerted the utmost resistance to the attack; but that, if it found that defendant threatened her with bodily harm and with apparent power to execute such threats, and that, as a result thereof, she was reasonably prevented from actual physical resistance, such would warrant a conviction.” 246 Iowa at 113, 66 N.W.2d at 863-864. (Emphasis added).
Complaining witness in this case offered no such testimony. Her summary conclu*309sion was “ * * * (t)he first act of intercourse he performed was without my consent and was against my will. It was also with force and fear * * This was not supported by any testimony the submission resulted, from the fear. The record strikes me as being far from sufficient to show beyond a reasonable doubt the complaining witness resisted to the utmost; or, if she didn’t, she failed to do so out of fear of great bodily harm.
II. The failure of the State to show resistance is easily explainable. There obviously was none. The testimony of the complaining witness was antithetical to any theory of resistance or lack of consent. She said she twice invited defendant, a total stranger who had assisted her on the highway, into her apartment. Both before and after defendant had helped her retrieve personal items from her disabled car he was asked in and served beer.
According to her story, after defendant had finished his beer and she had a beer, “ * * * then he started to kiss me and I pulled my head away. * * Apparently defendant and complaining witness were seated together on the davenport. It is not claimed defendant had to approach her any more closely to attempt to kiss her.
At this point she excused herself in order to go to the kitchen to take a birth control pill. The fact her husband had not been living with her for many months and she felt an inclination at the time to take a birth control pill does not lend credence to a claim of resistance. Neither does an inference of resistance arise from the fact the complaining witness freely admitted her most recent sexual relations, prior to the alleged attack, had been with someone other than her husband. The most telling measure of the degree of resistance was in the unexplained presence of a pair of men’s undershorts in the very bed where it is claimed the attack took place. The undershorts were not those of the defendant, nor was the complaining witness even able to suggest whose they were.
There was no resistance. I believe defendant’s innocence was manifest from the testimony of the complaining witness alone. I would reverse and order the charges against defendant dismissed.