Minnesota Supreme Court Overturns Criminal Sexual Conduct Conviction due to Victim's Intoxication
The Minnesota Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, overturned a criminal sexual conduct case due to the female victim being "voluntarily intoxicated." The court did not disagree with the occurrence of the sexual act in the case, stating, "The parties do not dispute the relevant facts." Yet, they still overturned the prior conviction of the defendant.
A new trial is set for the accused, convicted four years ago on a third-degree criminal sexual conduct charge.
According to the court, the victim was not legally considered "mentally incapacitated" under Minnesota state law. In the US, about forty states have similar laws regarding being drunk versus being mentally incapacitated. If a person chooses to get inebriated and blacks out, this Legislature offers no protection from sexual assault.
The "mentally incapacitated" laws found in about forty states do not protect drunken or drugged people who get sexually assaulted if they willingly overindulged and became unconscious.
This decision unleashed a torrent of protest by women's rights organizations, sexual assault victims, and others across the US.
The unnamed female victim was highly drunk and had also taken a prescription drug before joining the defendant Francios Momolu Khalil for what was supposed to be a party on May 13, 2017.
Before heading out for the evening with friends, also drunk, the woman voluntarily drank five vodka shots plus took prescription medicine.
The lawsuit states the woman and her friends were not allowed into the bar they tried to visit, so they instead went to a supposed party with strangers, including Khalil and two friends. However, the women were driven to a quiet North Minneapolis house in the early hours of May 14.
Once there, the woman lost consciousness and woke up while Khalil was sexually assaulting her. She blacked out again and woke up with her shorts around her ankles.
Sexual assault occurs every minute in the US.
A U.S.study reports over one in six female freshmen college women are raped in college while drunk.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC.org) reports, "Based on data from the survey, it is estimated that 734,630 people were raped (threatened, attempted, or completed) in the United States in 2018."
A publication of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA) states, "Conservative estimates of sexual assault prevalence suggest that 25 percent of American women have experienced sexual assault, including rape. Approximately one-half of those cases involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, victim, or both."
Yet, numerous states' laws do not protect women or men from being targeted by sexual assaults while drunk.
In this court case, the Supreme Court of Minnesota said anyone under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or any substance only has protection under the state's "mental incapacitation" law if they did not agree to be drugged or did not agree to drink voluntarily.
The judges’ decision quotes Minnesota a statute defining "mentally incapacitated" to mean “that a person under the influence of alcohol, a narcotic, anesthetic, or any other substance, administered to that person without the person's agreement, lacks the judgment to give a reasoned consent to sexual contact or sexual penetration."
In Minnesota, Democratic state Rep. Kelly Moller disagrees strongly with the current law. She introduced a bill to amend this statute, saying," Victims who are intoxicated to the degree that they are unable to give consent are entitled to justice. Minnesotans who experience unthinkable trauma deserve to see the Legislature take action on this immediately."
