Court Opinion

ID: 9702491
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:13:43.64482+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:37.962420
License: Public Domain

NIGRO, Justice,
dissenting.
While I condemn Appellant’s actions and recognize the egregious nature of the crime Appellant is charged with, under the facts of this case, I find the evidence was insufficient to support a finding that the victim was unconscious pursuant to 18 Pa.C.S. § 3121(3), and, therefore, I am constrained to dissent.
The evidence adduced at trial reveals that the victim testified that she unsuccessfully attempted to tell Appellant to stop throughout the entire assault. While she was unaware of the nature of the assault and why it stopped, she was cognizant that the assault stopped. Viewing those facts, the conclusion that the victim was “unconscious” for purposes of a conviction under § 3121(3) is unsound. The victim’s ability to recount details of this episode in her testimony demonstrates that she was not “unconscious”.1 *475The majority is trying to transform a “conscious” case into an “unconscious” case to support the conviction under § 3121(3). I believe there is a distinction between one who is inebriated and one who is unconscious. Inability to consent to sexual intercourse because of intoxication is not rape within the language of Pennsylvania’s rape statute. Under 18 Pa. C.S. § 3121, a person commits a first degree felony when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with a complainant:
(1) By forcible compulsion.
(2) By threat of forcible compulsion that would prevent resistance by a person of reasonable resolution.
(3) Who is unconscious or where the person knows the complainant is unaware that the sexual intercourse is occurring.
(4) Where the person has substantially impaired complainant’s power to appraise or control his or her conduct by administering or employing, without the knowledge of the complainant, drugs, intoxicants or other means for the purpose of preventing resistance.
(5) Who suffers from a mental disability which renders the complainant incapable of consent.
(6) Who is less than 13 years of age.
Absent a person’s conduct fitting one of the six enumerated subsections, there is no rape. Under the facts of this case, I do not believe the events that occurred properly correspond to any of the subsections of § 3121. Therefore, I believe it is incumbent upon the legislature to review 18 Pa.C.S. § 3121 in order to provide a means to achieve a conviction in matters analogous to the facts of this case. As I find Appellant’s conviction under § 3121(3) was improper, I respectfully dissent.
ZAPPALA, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

. Traditionally, our appellate courts have affirmed convictions under § 3121(3) where the victim was sleeping and awoke while defendant was having intercourse with the victim. See Commonwealth v. Widmer, 446 Pa.Super. 408, 667 A.2d 215 (1995), reversed on separate grounds *475547 Pa. 137, 689 A.2d 211 (1997); Commonwealth v. Price, 420 Pa.Super. 256, 616 A.2d 681 (1992)