Court Opinion

ID: 9743433
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:33:25.152053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:25.030451
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE KNECHT, specially concurring: I agree with the result, and I believe the majority raises an arguable question about the definitional instruction on force or threat of force. IPI Criminal 3d No. 11.65.1 specially concur to suggest the majority may have chosen the wrong case to raise the question and may mislead trial courts.. We can only speculate why the jury asked for a more detailed definition of “force.” It is possible a further explanation of force and use of force may have resulted in defendant’s conviction on an additional count of aggravated criminal sexual assault. Instead of being prejudiced, the defendant may have been advantaged by the trial court’s failure to provide additional explanation. The key point here is defendant acquiesced in the trial court’s standard reply — resolve the case using the instructions given. The defendant should have prepared a specific written response he wanted the court to give the jury. See Van Winkle v. Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., 291 Ill. App. 3d 165, 173-74, 683 N.E.2d 985, 991-92 (1997). He did not and agreed with the trial court’s reply. If we had a specific written response from defendant we could then begin to meaningfully examine whether an appropriate and helpful reply could have been given. Without such a proposed response, we should not theorize about what the trial judge could have said. “Force” and “consent” simply do not have static meanings. The significance of various factors — a cry for help, level of resistance, attempt to escape — depend on the circumstances of each case, Bowen, 241 Ill. App. 3d at 620, 609 N.E.2d at 356. The statutory provisions defining “force” and “consent,” upon which the jury instructions are based, are not unconstitutionally vague. Haywood, 118 Ill. 2d at 270, 515 N.E.2d at 48; Bowen, 241 Ill. App. 3d at 616-17, 609 N.E.2d at 354. Perhaps the definitions could be clearer and more detailed. Even without that greater detail, a person of ordinary intelligence should understand when consent has been freely given and when lack of resistance is actually the result of force. Haywood, 118 Ill. 2d at 274, 515 N.E.2d at 50; Bowen, 241 Ill. App. 3d at 617, 609 N.E.2d at 355. The issue is a sensitive one, because a discussion of consent and force is often viewed as impliedly questioning the victim’s conduct. The question of consent as a defense has caused the greatest difficulty in sex crimes because it focuses scrutiny on the victim’s behavior, as well as the accused’s, and brings into consideration a whole catalogue of assumptions, myths, and folk wisdom about sexual behavior and the differences in how men and women communicate. When the majority asks rhetorically whether the mere size of the accused absent other conduct is enough to justify a victim’s failure to make even verbal resistance, the question suggests victims have made such a claim. I am not aware of any reported case where the victim contended the accused’s size alone caused the victim to submit without any resistance, verbal or otherwise. Superior size with no other attendant circumstances would not be enough. In this case, defendant used his superior size to pin the victim to a picnic table. Thus, his large body was used to overpower the victim. A.B. testified the defendant prevented her from leaving the park when she tried to do so. A 260-pound man who rips your dress, squeezes your breasts, pushes you back onto a picnic table and tells you to shut up in response to your efforts to shove him off, then digitally penetrates your vagina and anus and then penetrates your vagina with his penis, then sodomizes you and then again penetrates you with his penis while you are screaming and struggling to push him off, would know he is taking what he wants by force and not engaging in what both parties desire because of a freely given agreement. There is a distinction between real consent and mere submission. We should all know the difference, and if we do not, it is incumbent on us to learn.