Fate of New York ‘rape is rape’ legislation remains unclear as it stalls in Senate
ALBANY — It’s been an entire decade since legislation was first introduced in the State Capitol that would expand the definition of rape in New York.
A full ten years of advocates and supporters arguing for the measure, typically referred to as the “Rape is Rape” bill, and hoping lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will see the need to broaden the legal definition of rape beyond vaginal penetration.
The bill, as written, would redefine rape to include non-consensual sexual contact, including oral and anal, which are currently prosecuted as criminal sexual acts.
Since 2012, the Democratic-led Assembly approved the bill, and it passed again last week by a margin of 129 to 16. The bill has failed to pass the Senate due to being under Republican control until 2019 and pushback from prosecutors.
“For the last 10 years, the Assembly has passed the “Rape is Rape” bill in our effort to give survivors of rape the dignity they deserve,” said sponsor Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Queens). “Our law is currently enshrined in outdated gendered notions of rape, creating different categories of sexual assault for what is clearly ‘Rape.’”
The bill is rooted in the story of Lydia Cuomo, a brave former Bronx school teacher who was sexually assaulted by an off-duty NYPD cop in 2011.
Former Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas introduced the measure a year after Cuomo was dragged into an upper Manhattan courtyard and sexually brutalized at gunpoint by drunken off-duty cop Michael Pena as she waited for a ride to work.
The crime was not considered rape under current state law and Pena was instead charged with crimes classified as “criminal sex acts.”
The 35-year-old, now living in North Carolina, argues that while carrying the same legal penalties, not calling the acts rape reduces their perceived severity.
Survivor of brutal attack by police officer heads to Albany to expand state's definition of 'rape'
“The word rape is a powerful word, and it’s a powerful word for a reason,” Cuomo told the Daily News in 2019, when she last ventured to Albany to push the Senate to pass the bill.
“These are really powerful acts and we’re not calling them what they need to be called,” she added.
Pena was sentenced to 75-years-to-life three based on three predatory sexual assault convictions.
Despite Democrats taking over the Senate three years ago, the bill has yet to pass the upper chamber. A different version that had the support of prosecutors won approval in 2019 but was never reconciled in the Assembly.
Cruz said she wants to see the bill passed last week taken up as-is in the Senate.
“I am hopeful that our colleagues in the Senate can finally follow suit to ensure that the State of New York stops negating the experiences of survivors,” she said. “It is our responsibility to right this wrong and to finally provide survivors the opportunity to obtain adequate justice and recognition.”
The bill could very well come up for a vote at some point in the Senate this legislative session.
“We understand the importance of the issue and we plan on moving on this issue this year,” Mike Murphy, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, said.
However, prosecutors continue to oppose the bill, saying they support the concept of eliminating the penetration requirement for rape, but contend the language as written would upend the penal law by needlessly folding criminal sex acts into the rape statute.
Opponents also argue against eliminating the element of “sexual intercourse” from the rape statutes, which is defined as “penetration however slight,” and replacing it with “vaginal sexual contact.”
They say the change would impact sentencing because if more than one act occurred, “the defendant would not be able to receive consecutive sentences.”
“The bill as currently written and that passed in the Assembly would create statewide chaos in sex crimes cases and compromise the ability of victims to achieve justice,” said Washington County District Attorney J. Anthony Jordan, the president of the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York.
Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh (R-Ballston Spa) echoed prosecutors as she voted against the measure last week, calling for amendments to the bill.
“What I find frustrating is that for 10 years, we could have had the essence of this bill, which is rape is rape,” she said. “We could do it, but do it in such a way to make it so that there is no risk of this problem with sentencing.”
