The definition of rape in California changed after Governor Brown A.B. 701 and A.B. 2888.
Assembly woman, Cristina Garcia of District 58 and Susan Talamantes Eggman of District 12 presented the two bills after the six-month sentencing of Brock Turner, a 20-year-old Stanford student who sexually assaulted an intoxicated woman. Both lawmakers were outraged by the six month sentence handed to Turner, who was convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault.
Currently, California Penal Code 261 defines rape as an unlawful “act of sexual intercourse.” The victim was allegedly penetrated by Turner’s finger; the crime was classified as sexual assault. However A.B. 701 will re-define rape to include all forms of nonconsensual sexual assault.
Additionally, A.B. 2888 prohibits courts from granting probation or suspending prison sentences when a defendant is convicted of “rape, sodomy, penetration with a foreign object, or oral copulation” with a victim that is unconscious or incapable of consent due to intoxication.
The new bills will go in effect on January 1, 2017.
