NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A4249A
SPONSOR: Simotas (MS)
 
TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the penal law, the criminal procedure
law, the correction law, the social services law, the vehicle and traf-
fic law, the family court act, the civil rights law, the civil practice
law and rules, the agriculture and markets law, the judiciary law and
the domestic relations law, in relation to sex offenses; and to repeal
certain provisions of the penal law relating thereto
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To amend the penal law to remove the penetration requirement from the
rape statutes as well as to define rape as sexual intercourse, oral
sexual conduct, or anal sexual conduct.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This bill removes the penetration requirement from the rape statutes,
redefines rape to include oral and anal sexual conduct within the defi-
nition of rape and makes conforming changes throughout various areas of
law.
 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
The amended version makes technical changes to address the implementa-
tion of Raise the Age legislation (Chapter 59 of 2017) and changes the
effective date.
 
EFFECTS OF PRESENT LAW WHICH THIS BILL WOULD ALTER:
This bill removes the penetration requirement from the rape statutes and
redefines rape include oral and anal sexual conduct within the defi-
nition of rape.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
On March 28, 2012, a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court
declared a mistrial on the rape charge against former New York City
Police Officer Michael Pena. Pena was convicted of several other charges
for holding the schoolteacher at gunpoint, threatening her life and
forcibly sodomizing her. Pena was not convicted of rape despite over-
whelming evidence of forcible, nonconsensual sexual conduct with a Bronx
school teacher, It is galling that in the face of evidence of the
defendant's semen in the victim's underwear, redness to her genitals,
eyewitness testimony and the victim's own account of the pain of the
attack, Pena was not convicted of the top count of rape.
Common sense dictates that what happened to the victim in this case is
rape.
This bill will redefine rape to include oral and anal sexual conduct,
which are now referred to as "criminal sexual act," so that these other
forms of sexual assault are recognized by the law as rape.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2015-16: A4959B
2017: A4249
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act will take effect on January 1, 2019.