In a shocking verdict, a panel of judges reversed the rape conviction of Julio Morales, who had been imprisoned for rape after sneaking into a woman’s house and having sex with her by pretending to be her boyfriend.
After a night of heavy drinking, the victim and her boyfriend had fallen asleep in bed together. After the boyfriend left for home, Morales had slipped into bed with the victim and instigated sex. Because it was dark, and the victim was still intoxicated, she didn’t realize it wasn’t her boyfriend she was having sex with until half-way through the act.
It seems like a straightforward case of rape. The woman only consented to sex because she believed it was her boyfriend she was sleeping with. However, the appeals court disagreed citing an obscure 1872 law that ruled unmarried women couldn’t be protected from men impersonating their partners (because in the 19th century, of course, only married women should be consenting to sex).
Judge Thomas L. Willhite Jr. wrote in the panel’s judgment: “"Has the man committed rape? Because of historical anomalies in the law and the statutory definition of rape, the answer is no, even though, if the woman had been married and the man had impersonated her husband, the answer would be yes.”
But before you lose all hope, it’s worth reading the rest of the ruling. The panel’s ruling to reverse Morales conviction isn’t clearing him of rape. Instead, it’s opening the case up for retrial.
The judges noted that jurors in the original case had convicted Morales of rape because he’d impersonated the woman’s boyfriend, which is what the 1872 law specifically addresses as “only applicable to married women.”
The judges want Morales to instead be convicted of rape on other grounds – that he initiated sex with his victim while she was still asleep. Although she woke up and consented (in the mistaken belief Morales was her boyfriend) that initial penetration is the dictionary definition of rape because it occurred without the victim’s consent.
In any event, judges are aiming to ensure that Morales gets the punishment he deserves, and hopefully the California legislature can now do something to address the 1872 law that almost helped a rapist escape conviction.