Sexual Assault and Related Offenses

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Status Details

At the 2021 Annual Meeting, membership voted to approve Tentative Draft No. 5. Approval of this draft marks the completion of the project, subject to the Council’s approval of the amendments approved at this Annual Meeting. The following are details of the actions taken at the 2021 Annual Meeting:

• A motion presented by Kimberly Kessler Ferzan to amend the “recklessly” mens rea formulations in Article 213 and structure in certain offenses passed.
• Three motions to modify Section 213.3 failed.
• After the Reporters agreed in substance to a motion to add a new subsection (10) to Section 213.8, an amended motion to add the following language as a new subsection (10) was passed by the membership: “For an offense charged under Section 213.8, an actor younger than 14 may be adjudicated delinquent only as a misdemeanant, regardless of the penalty authorized by the statute for the offense.”
• A motion to delete Section 213.10 failed.
• Six motions to amend Sections 213.11A, 213.11E, 213.11F, 213.11G, and 213.11I were accepted by the Reporters and passed by the membership.
• A motion to remove subsection (1)(b) of Section 213.0 failed.

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At the 2017 Annual Meeting, the definitions of “Sexual Penetration” and “Oral Sex” were discussed and approved as presented in the draft after a motion on each definition was presented from the floor and did not pass. There was discussion on 213.1, but there was not enough time for all motions on this section to be considered. The following are details of the actions taken at the 2017 Annual Meeting:

• A motion to add “purposeful” to Section 213.0(1) failed.
• A motion to replace “touching” in Section 213.0(2) failed.
• A motion to move the mens rea from the end to the beginning of Section 213.1(1) was accepted by the Reporters as a friendly amendment.
• A written motion regarding Section 213.1 was made into two motions from the floor: (i) a motion to remove “recklessly” from Section 213.1(1) passed; and (ii) a motion to add the phrase “without the consent of the other person” to Section 213.1(1) was not reached due to lack of time.
• As previously announced, the meeting had to stop at 5:15 p.m. for Annual Dinner set-up, before discussion of the second motion regarding Section 213.1, or discussion of Section 213.1 generally, was complete.
• A Boskey motion to approve Sections 213.0(1) and 213.0(2) passed. 
• Section 213.1 will be reviewed at future meetings.  

Note: The summary above, which was initially posted immediately following the Annual Meeting, was corrected after staff received and reviewed the transcript of the proceedings. 

At the 2016 Annual Meeting, the definition of "Consent" was approved as amended. The Council approved this definition at its October 2016 meeting.

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All draft approvals are subject to the discussion at the meeting and usual editorial prerogative.

For an in-depth description of this project, please visit the Model Penal Code: Sexual Assault page of the The ALI Adviser.

Project Video

Project Reporter Stephen Schulhofer and Associate Reporter Erin Murphy discuss the project in this short video: