Is Kentucky prosecuting consenting adults for having sex with each other? There's no way to know from what is reported in this article at cynthianademocrat.com. Beck Barnes has the blurb.
Why not a "sexual assault" or "rape" charge? Without such a charge, this sounds like it could have been consensual. A 45-year-old man could easily have a "descendent" who is well into adulthood and fully consented. There isn't even any information on whether he was involved in the person's life while they were growing up. Consensual sex should not be a crime. Rape should be called what it is... rape. And it should be prosecuted as such.
The Harrison County man who was indicted in August on three counts of incest has changed his plea.
Handsome Lee Tolliver, 45, will be sentenced Jan. 7 in Harrison Circuit Court following a pre-sentencing investigation and evaluation.
Tolliver entered a guilty plea to each of three charges of incest on Tuesday in Harrison Circuit Court.
The August indictment stated that Tolliver had sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse with a person whom he knew to be his descendant.
Why not a "sexual assault" or "rape" charge? Without such a charge, this sounds like it could have been consensual. A 45-year-old man could easily have a "descendent" who is well into adulthood and fully consented. There isn't even any information on whether he was involved in the person's life while they were growing up. Consensual sex should not be a crime. Rape should be called what it is... rape. And it should be prosecuted as such.
According to Wikipedia, Consanguinamory can get you 25 years. Also according to wikipedia, the sentences of rape are not uniform, but tend to average around 11.8 years. But the actual time served tends to be around half at 5.4 years
ReplyDeleteAssuming the "victims" in this case are adults. I see problems with these laws. If these girls or boys were really raped, then why are there no rape charges for this man? You have pointed this out several times in general and this case in particular. So let's say he is charged for one raping one family member, what is his sentence? Is it 25 years or 25 plus the rape? If the former, are they saying that all incest is rape. If so, then how do they account for such GSA such as if two siblings fall in love, get married and later find out they are related? In such a situation, if they continued, they would be committing incest and just as punishable in the eyes of the law. Who out of the two commited rape then, or does being related automatically draw somebody to commit rape even without knowledge?
If they get a rape charge on top of the incest charge, then their reasoning still has flaws. If I was raped, it would be bad, and if it was by a family member I trusted, then I would be a bit more hurt. I understand why they would want a higher sentencing, But if there are two charges one for the rape and the other signifying their blood relation (or in many cases, even step family is considered incest as well), it draws away guilt imo. The perpetrator would be punished and villified not for raping somebody, but for having sex with a family member, a charge that would be applied regardless of consent. It minimizes the actual rape. If it really was about the rape, then the charges would be combined as consanguineous rape or incestual rape. But even that falls apart. It would suck if I got stabbed and robbed, but I would feel even worse if it was a family member that mugged me. And yet, there is no law for consanguineous mugging or whatever you could call it. And certainly they don't call mugging a family member incest. And while the two aren't really related, we don't charge people borrowing money with mugging either even if they borrowed it from a family member. I could even be coerced into lending them money, perhaps all I own. And yet at the end of the day, such a mistake would ultimately be my own. It'd be the same as if I consented to sex with a family member and later regretted it. With the freedom to consent, comes the responsibility to know when to withdraw consent. If I consented to give my money away, and I never get it back, then if I give my money away again, it shows I consented to it, and can't really complain. If I refuse and have it forcefully taken, then I was robbed. Same as if I consented to sex, regretted it, but consented again because it felt good, then I can't complain. But if I refuse and get forced, then I was raped. But if it came to either, that is if I consented out of fear of having it taken by force, then it wasn't really consent. I want to make that clear, that threatening force to gain consent doesn't count. I could have also drawn a parralell to murder, that murduring family members could be seen as worse than murdering a stranger, but we don't classify them differently.
Anyway, if those 12 so years are being acccounted for in the incest charge, then it assumes that no matter how severe (since there's always a victim, and if said victim claims to not be a victim, then said victim is just an accomplice to their own rape and also punishable), that the charge will be 25 years. As people who love each other get sentenced to longer than a rape charge, and longer than a murder charge, the law seems to encourage people to be as sleazy as possible. In for a penny in for a pound.
It's always disheartening to know that if you have a happy relationship with a family member,and you get caught, you are eligable for more time than some guy who severely raped his victim and murdered them.
This comment is so very much appreciated. Thanks!!!
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