Court Opinion

ID: 9853388
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:47:40.533878+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:46.589586
License: Public Domain

ELLETT, Chief Justice
(dissenting):
The defendant was charged by an information with the crime of aggravated sexual assault under Section 76-5-405. At the time of the offense the pertinent statutes1 read as follows:
Section 76-5-405. (1) A person commits aggravated sexual assault if:
(a) In the course of a rape or attempted rape or forcible sodomy or attempted forcible sodomy:
(i) The actor causes serious bodily injury to the victim; or
(ii) The actor compels submission to the rape or forcible sodomy by threat of kidnapping, death, or serious bodily injury to be inflicted imminently on any person.
• (b) The victim of a rape or attempted rape or sodomy or attempted sodomy is under fourteen years of age.
*578(2) Aggravated sexual assault is a felony of the first degree.
Section 76-5-406. An act of sexual intercourse, sodomy, or sexual abuse is without consent of the victim under any of the following circumstances:
(1) When the actor compels the victim to submit or participate by force that overcomes such earnest resistance as might reasonably be expected under the circumstances; or
(2) The actor compels the victim to submit or participate by any threat that would prevent resistance by a person of ordinary resolution; or
* * * * * *
(7) The victim is under fourteen years of age.
Section 76-5-402. (1) A male person commits rape when he has sexual intercourse with a female, not his wife, without her consent.
(2) Rape is a felony of the second degree.
It thus appears that statutory rape was a second-degree felony. That is, when the girl is under the age of fourteen years, sexual relations with her is rape even though she actually consents, because the law does not permit her to give consent to sexual intercourse. Consensual sex relations with a girl under fourteen years of age is statutory rape.
Aggravated sexual assault is rape of a different order from statutory rape; it is rape committed by force or by threat of force.
The statute was amended in 1977 to eliminate victims under fourteen years of age from Section 76-5-405.2 That amendment would not make non-criminal, acts which had theretofore been criminal at the time of commission.3 If the penalty had been amended, the defendant would be entitled to any reduction in that penalty, provided the amendment was effective before or at the time sentence was pronounced upon him.4 In the instant matter, however, the penalty for aggravated sexual assault has not been changed. It is still a felony of the first degree.
A reading of Laws of Utah, 1977, Chapter 86 reveals why Section 76-5 — 405 was amended to eliminate subsection (l)(b) which related to victims under fourteen years of age. The legislature, at the same time, amended Section 76-5-4025 to read:
(2) Rape is a felony of the second degree unless the victim is under the age of 14, in which case the offense is punishable as a felony of the first degree.
The 1977 amendments were not effective until May 10, 1977, and the crime herein was committed in February, 1977.
The appellant did not bring any of the record before this Court other than the information under which he was charged and convicted and the verdict rendered by the jury. In such a case we presume the evidence was sufficient to sustain the verdict and judgment.6 We, therefore, must assume that the defendant had sexual intercourse with the victim by force and violence and without her consent. The crime then would be aggravated sexual assault and the penalty for aggravated sexual assault was, and still is, that for a first-degree felony.
I think the trial judge imposed the proper sentence upon the defendant and the judgment should be affirmed.

. Enacted by Laws of Utah, 1973, ch. 196.

. Enacted by Laws of Utah, 1977, ch. 86, Sec. 4.

. State v. Williams, 286 N.C. 422, 212 S.E.2d 113, 120 (1975); U. S. v. Fiore, 467 F.2d 86 (2nd Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 984, 93 S.Ct. 1510, 36 L.Ed.2d 181 (1973).

. Beit v. Turner, 25 Utah 2d 230, 479 P.2d 791 (1971).

. Previously enacted by Laws of Utah, 1973, ch. 196; amended by Laws of Utah, 1977, ch. 86, Sec. 1.

. Nagle v. Club Fontainbleu, 17 Utah 2d 125, 405 P.2d 346 (1965); Petty v. Gindy Mfg. Corp., 17 Utah 2d 32, 404 P.2d 30 (1965).