ACT Will Check Stupefication Law Change
Thursday 19 Jun 2003 Stephen Franks Press Releases -- Crime & Justice
ACT New Zealand Justice Spokesman Stephen Franks today said that a law change is needed against opportunists who rape
stupefied victims - even where they haven't done the stupefying - but that ACT will examine the drafting very carefully.
"Politicians love fiddling with sex offence laws. They have a habit of casting the net too wide, because it makes for
better slogans. But innocents can end up trapped in nightmare proceedings because long-standing rules of evidence have
been pruned," Mr Franks said.
"In this case, the boundary between a drunken `yes' that should have been `no', and `yes' that means `yes', might
depend on hindsight reconstruction in light of morning-after regrets. Plainly, everyone should understand the difference
between unconsciousness and lucid consent - but how many can be sure of the difference between having a wild time while
`out of your tree' and, on the other hand, being blind drunk, dazed and `out of it'?
"The safest new law would content itself with reasonable ambitions - catch the obvious cases, which everyone would
agree on, where the victim is near unconscious. A new law should steer clear of territory where judges and juries must
decide whether `yes' meant `no', just because the consenter is now claiming they didn't know what they meant - though
their words or actions said `yes', or at least `I don't care if you do'.
"The law should also distinguish between the position of a drink-spiking victim, and that of someone who loses their
inhibitions because they've got themselves legless. The law already says self-inflicted drunkenness is no excuse if you
commit a crime, nor should drunkenness be an aid to making false accusations of crime against others," Mr Franks said.
ENDS
For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at
act@parliament.govt.nz.