Court Opinion

ID: 9652506
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:24:54.100873+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:51.937910
License: Public Domain

concurring.
I join the Majority opinion but write separately to emphasize in a more succinct fashion the definitions of the crimes of Rape and Deviate Sexual Intercourse, which I believe the Majority imply but do not succinctly state. Over the years, these definitions have become heavily encrusted with legal barnacles and I believe that the present case offers an opportunity to scrape away the ambiguities and restore the true nature of these crimes. Clarification can be accomplished through a series of brief definitional statements which will lay to rest all persistent confusions.
*254First, the crimes of Rape (3121) and Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse are overlapping to the extent that they both include the acts of oral and anal sex. There is no gender distinction between them. The distinctions are traditional but not definitional. The act of rape can be committed by penetration however slight by penis or by mouth by either sex upon either sex. A male can rape a female by his penetration of any of the victim’s orifices; a male can rape another male in the same fashion; and, similarly, a female can rape another female or male as well. (In Pennsylvania, regrettably, penetration by an artificial instrument or digit is not rape but does constitute indecent assault).
The only distinction between the two statutes is that under Deviate Sexual Intercourse a victim below the age of 16 cannot consent to the act. Although the overwhelming number of these crimes are committed by penis-vaginal penetration, that is merely a statistical and historical circumstance. The Commonwealth is free to charge under Rape or Deviate Sexual Intercourse. Both are felonies of the first degree. Charges are filed per assault per orifice. We should not be confused by the fact that customary usage of the term “rape” refers to a male committing vaginal penetration of a female, nor by the usual designation of sodomy as a deviate crime.
Finally, I am convinced that the Majority’s use of the phrase “not his spouse” creates additional confusion in light of the fact that the express language of § 3121 (Rape) includes spousal sexual assault as defined in § 3128.
NIX, Chief Justice,