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Philanderers beware...
19/01/2007 08:19 - (SA)
Michigan - Philanderers beware: spouses caught cheating in Michigan could
end up spending the rest of their life in prison.
And not the emotional kind.
The state's appeals court recently ruled that extramarital
flings can be prosecuted as first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a
felony punishable by up to life in jail.
"We cannot help but question whether the legislature actually
intended the result we reach here today," Judge William Murphy
wrote in a unanimous Court of Appeals panel, "but we are curtailed
by the language of the statute from reaching any other conclusion."
"Technically," he added, "any time a person engages in sexual
penetration in an adulterous relationship, he or she is guilty of
CSC I," the most serious sexual assault charge in the state's
criminal code.
Michigan still lists adultery as a felony, although no one has
been convicted of the offence since 1971.
'Bizarre' ruling
Nobody really expects prosecutors to go after cheating spouses.
But the ruling has the local legal community twittering about its
genuine intended target.
One theory floating around the courthouse is that the judges
were taking a jab at the state Supreme Court, which has decreed
that judges must interpret statutory language adopted by the
legislature literally, whatever the consequences.
Many other states allow judges to reject a literal
interpretation if they believe it would lead to an absurd result.
Judge Murphy wrote that he encouraged "the legislature to take a
second look at the statutory language if they are troubled by our
ruling."
A spokesperson for the attorney general, who publicly admitted to
adultery in November, declined to say whether they would press for
legislative amendments to make it clear that only violent felonies
involving an unwilling victim could trigger a first-degree CSC
charge.
"This is so bizarre that it doesn't even merit a response,"
Rusty Hill said.
The appeals court decision involved a man convicted of trading
prescription painkillers for sex.
In an attempt to increase his jail time, prosecutors used an
obscure provision of the state's criminal law to charge him with
criminal sexual conduct, which occurs whenever "sexual penetration
occurs under circumstances involving the commission of any other
felony".
- AP
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