rich 64)This dissent implies that if the woman feels threatened, she is exempt from having to use physical force to prove that the advances were unwelcome. In Wyoming, a trial judge found that a victim does not have to subject herself to a beating, knifing, or anything of that nature. As long as she is convinced something of a more serious nature will happen she is then given by law the right to submit.(Estrich 66) However, on appeal, the Wyoming Supreme Court found that, because it would place the determination solely in the judgment of the prosecutrix and omit the necessity element of a reasonable apprehension and reasonable ground for such fear; and the reasonableness must rest with the fact finder.(Estrich 67) Another court, in a case where a woman was alone with the defendant and the woman was much smaller in size than the defendant, decided that saying no was not enough to show resistance. It is true that she told the appellant that she didnt want to do that [stuff]. But the resistance that must be shown involves no merely verbal but physical resistance to the extent of her ability at the time.(Estrich 68)Another aspect of the law that needs to be changed but remains the same is the stipulation that a man cannot rape his own wife. In 1985, nine states still disallowed the prosecution of a husband, even in the most brutal raping of his wife. The only limit on this rule is that if a married couple is living apart and legally separated, the husband may then be charged with rape. The supposed rationale behind this legislation is that, marriage or equivalent relationship, while not amounting to a legal waiver of the womans right to say no, does imply a kind of generalized consent the problem with abandoning the immunity in many such situations is that the law of rape, if applied to spouses, would thrust the prospect of criminal sanctions into the ongoing process of adjustment in the marital relationship.(Estrich 74)In current...
