Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

190 Jill Laurie Goodman
nuanced story of the victim’s life, an appellate court, affirming convictions for
rape and sodomy, found no error in the trial judge’s allowing evidence “of
previous acts of domestic violence, which like the charged crimes, were spawned
of defendant’s jealousy concerning what he perceived to be the victim’s
relations with other men.” 33
Bias Against Victims of Non-Stranger and Particularly Marital Rape
Prosecutions for intimate partner sexual assault and particularly wife rape
must navigate the prejudices against victims of anything short of “real” rape.
Law can change literally overnight, as it did when the Court of Appeals decided
People v Liberta and declared the marital rape exemption unconstitutional, 34 but
attitudes take longer to transform, and jurors bring their cultural biases with
them to the jury box.
You can use jury selection to begin to educate jurors, and you can ask
prospective jurors to make a commitment to upholding the law. Opening
statements and summations are times to remind jurors of their sworn obligations
to enforce the law as it is, not as it was or as they would like it to be. In the end,
presenting the narrative of the victim’s life, her fears, her suffering, and her
methods of coping with violence, may be the best, although necessarily
imperfect, means of overcoming biases against believing the victim of intimate
partner or marital rape, getting a conviction that holds the rapist accountable,
and protecting the victim and the public.