Court Opinion

ID: 9634327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:08:53.977647+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:00.560152
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. The Rape Shield Law provides that
Evidence of specific instances of the alleged victim’s past sexual conduct, opinion evidence of the alleged victim’s past sexual conduct, and reputation evidence of the alleged victim’s past sexual conduct shall not be admissible in prosecutions under this chapter except evidence of the alleged victim’s past sexual conduct with the defendant where consent of the alleged victim is at issue and such evidence is otherwise admissible pursuant to the rules of evidence.
18 Pa.C.S.A. § 3104(a) (emphasis added).
The language of this statute is clear and unambiguous: the only evidence of a victim’s past sexual conduct which may be admitted at trial is evidence of past sexual conduct with the defendant, where consent of the victim is an issue.
As the Superior Court correctly noted in this case, “What [co-defendant] Richard [Nickol] said occurred (in his proffered, but excluded, testimony) and what Carol said occurred are not the same event. They are two separate incidents, whether both, either, or neither in fact occurred.” 299 Pa.Super. at 216, 445 A.2d at 531.
*613The only consensual intercourse which is alleged to have taken place in this case was that described in appellant’s offer of proof, namely, the intercourse which allegedly occurred in a parking garage several hours before the alleged rape. However, with respect to the alleged rape for which appellant was tried, appellant never attempted to defend himself on the grounds that the victim had consented. In fact, as the majority itself notes, the evidence sought to be introduced by appellant was relevant only to show that the sperm which were present upon examination of the victim were the result of an earlier act of allegedly consensual intercourse, rather than of an alleged rape.
The Rape Shield Law is very clear and unquestionably needed. Yet the majority has now taken the first step to water it down and allow the evil and harm of introducing evidence of a woman’s past sexual conduct to creep back into the courtroom. Since there was no issue of consent in this case with respect to the alleged rape, the Rape Shield Law plainly and clearly prohibits the introduction of any evidence of the victim’s past sexual conduct.
I would, therefore, affirm the order of the Superior Court affirming the judgment of sentence.