Oregon v. Rideout

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Oregon v. Rideout was a trial held in Marion County Circuit Court in 1978 in Salem, Oregon. John Rideout was accused of raping his wife, Greta Rideout, the first man in the United States to be charged with raping his wife while they were still living together. [1] The trial was the first in Oregon relating to marital rape since the state revised its rape law in 1977 to eliminate the marital rape immunity. [1] Following a jury trial, John Rideout was acquitted.

Contents

Background

In 1977, Oregon passed a law removing marriage or cohabitation as a legal defense to a charge of rape. [2] In 1978, Greta Rideout brought a charge of rape against her husband under the 1977 law. [3]  The alleged assault according to Greta Rideout occurred October 10, 1978, at their apartment in North Salem. [4]  Having been arguing recently and facing threats of violence from John, she had refused to have sex with him and attempted to leave the house. He then brought her back to the apartment and forced himself on her. When she tried to report this to the police, she was told according to Oregon law she had to wait two days to make a rape charge. He was then arrested a week later and the trial began two months after that on December 19, 1978. John became the first man in the United States to be charged with raping his wife while he was still living with her. [5] There were other cases of marital rape charges brought before the courts in the United States prior to this, but they did not involve couples who had been cohabitating. [5]

Trial

Charles Burt represented the husband, John Rideout, while Greta Rideout was represented by Marion County District Attorney Gary Gortmaker. Burt is quoted saying, “A woman who’s still in a marriage is presumably consenting to sex…Maybe this is the risk of being married, you know?...If this law’s interpretation isn’t corrected it will bring a flock of rape cases under very bad circumstances…The remedy is to get out of the marital situation.” [6]   He was found not guilty by a unanimous jury composed of eight women and four men on December 27, 1978. [7]  

Aftermath

Even though the verdict in this case was reached very quickly, the case itself stirred up public and governmental interest on the issue of marital rape and social rules about sex between husbands and wives. It also continued conversations on behalf of activists and government representatives on whether or not other states should pass similar laws allowing wives to charge husbands with rape. [8]  As marital rape exemption clauses were removed from state rules for prosecution during the 1970s and 1980s, more cases were brought to the courts. However, by 1987, only twelve states had laws allowing wives to charge their husbands with rape without considerations of legal separation or cohabitation. [9] By 1993 marital rape was a crime in all 50 U.S. states. [10]

The case was even turned into a made for TV movie in 1980. [4]

John Rideout was again prosecuted for rape in 2016 almost 40 years after his acquittal for the rape of Greta Rideout. However, those charges stemmed from two different charges of rape in 2013. One by a woman who had hired John Rideout to do handyman work and another by his cohabitating girlfriend at the time. [11] He was convicted of the rapes in 2017 and sentenced to two 100-month sentences. [12]

Related Research Articles

Concubinage The state of living together as spouses while not married

Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.

Marriage Culturally recognised union between people

Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between them and their in-laws. It is considered a cultural universal, but the definition of marriage varies between cultures and religions, and over time. Typically, it is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually sexual, are acknowledged or sanctioned. In some cultures, marriage is recommended or considered to be compulsory before pursuing any sexual activity. A marriage ceremony is called a wedding.

Polygamy is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry.

Cohabitation is an arrangement where two people are not married but live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increasingly common in Western countries since the late 20th century, being led by changing social views, especially regarding marriage, gender roles and religion.

Divorce is the optional process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular country or state. Divorce laws vary considerably around the world, but in most countries, divorce requires the sanction of a court or other authority in a legal process, which may involve issues of distribution of property, child custody, alimony, child visitation / access, parenting time, child support, and division of debt. In most countries, monogamy is required by law, so divorce allows each former partner to marry another person.

Wife Female spouse; woman who is married

A wife is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, a wife is referred to as a widow. The rights and obligations of a wife in relation to her partner and her status in the community and in law vary between cultures and have varied over time.

Marital rape or spousal rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's consent. The lack of consent is the essential element and need not involve physical violence. Marital rape is considered a form of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Although, historically, sexual intercourse within marriage was regarded as a right of spouses, engaging in the act without the spouse's consent is now widely classified as rape by many societies around the world, repudiated by international conventions, and increasingly criminalized.

The National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape was an American research center that compiled and provided information on date and marital rape cases, and on legislation regarding them, and media publications on these subjects, as well as acting as an advocate for marital and date rape victims. It began in 1978 as a project of the Women's History Research Center, with Laura X as its director. It published a pamphlet on the landmark 1978 Oregon v. Rideout case, in which a man was acquitted of raping his wife; the case was the first time in American history a husband was tried for raping his wife while they were living together. In 1983 the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape conducted the world's first conference on marital rape. In 2004 the Clearinghouse closed, but it maintains its website for posterity.

Husband Male spouse; man who is married

A husband is a male in a marital relationship, who may also be referred to as a spouse. The rights and obligations of a husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between societies and cultures, and have varied over time.

The type, functions, and characteristics of marriage vary from culture to culture, and can change over time. In general there are two types: civil marriage and religious marriage, and typically marriages employ a combination of both. Marriages between people of differing religions are called interfaith marriages, while marital conversion, a more controversial concept than interfaith marriage, refers to the religious conversion of one partner to the other's religion for sake of satisfying a religious requirement.

Current state of polygamy in the Latter Day Saint movement

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, privately taught and practiced polygamy. After Smith's death in 1844, the church he established splintered into several competing groups. Disagreement over Smith's doctrine of "plural marriage" has been among the primary reasons for multiple church schisms.

Criticisms of marriage are arguments against the practical or moral value of the institution of matrimony or particular forms of matrimony. These have included the effects that marriage has on individual liberty, equality between the sexes, the relation between marriage and violence, philosophical questions about how much control can a government have over its population, the amount of control a person has over another, the financial risk when measured against the divorce rate, and questioning of the necessity to have a relationship sanctioned by government or religious authorities.

Cohabitation in the United States is loosely defined as two or more people, in an intimate relationship, who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by marriage nor a civil union.

<i>R v R</i> English marital rape trial

R v R[1991] UKHL 12 is a decision in which the House of Lords determined that under English criminal law, it is a crime for a husband to rape his wife.

Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2019 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 32033 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 88 cases daily, slightly lower than 2018 when 91 cases were registered daily. Of these, 30,165 rapes were committed by perpetrators known to the victim, a high number similar to 2018. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 - the legal age of consent - stood at 15.4%, down from 27.8% in 2018. On the other hand, rapes by juveniles remained high in India with 3 minors being arrested for rape, assault and attempted violence on women and girls each day in 2019.

Prosecution of gender-targeted crimes is the legal proceedings to prosecute crimes such as rape and domestic violence. The earliest documented prosecution of gender-based/targeted crimes is from 1474 when Sir Peter von Hagenbach was convicted for rapes committed by his troops. However, the trial was only successful in indicting Sir von Hagenbach with the charge of rape because the war in which the rapes occurred was "undeclared" and thus the rapes were considered illegal only because of this. Gender-targeted crimes continued to be prosecuted, but it was not until after World War II when an international criminal tribunal – the International Military Tribunal for the Far East – were officers charged for being responsible of the gender-targeted crimes and other crimes against humanity. Despite the various rape charges, the Charter of the Tokyo Tribunal did not make references to rape, and rape was considered as subordinate to other war crimes. This is also the situation for other tribunals that followed, but with the establishments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), there was more attention to the prosecution of gender-targeted crimes with each of the statutes explicitly referring to rape and other forms of gender-targeted violence.

Marital rape in United States law, also known as spousal rape, is non-consensual sex in which the perpetrator is the victim's spouse. It is a form of partner rape, of domestic violence, and of sexual abuse. Today, marital rape is illegal in all 50 US states, though the details of the offence vary by state.

The Phulmoni Dasi rape case was a case of child marriage and subsequent marital rape in India in 1889, which resulted in the death of the 10-year-old girl, Phulmoni Dasi. The case led to the conviction of the husband in 1890 and triggered several legal reforms.

<i>Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case</i>

Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case is a 1980 American made-for-television drama film directed by Peter Levin and starring Mickey Rourke, Linda Hamilton and Rip Torn.

Rape in Islamic law Sexual violation as interpreted in Islamic theological jurisprudence

In Islam, human sexuality is governed by Islamic law (Sharia). Accordingly, sexual violation is regarded as a violation of moral and divine law. Islam divided claims of sexual violation into 'divine rights' and 'interpersonal rights' : the former requiring divine punishment and the latter belonging to the more flexible human realm.

References

  1. 1 2 Ledbetter, Les (28 December 1978). "Oregon Man Found Not Guilty On a Charge of Raping His Wife". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
  2. ↑ Rape Statute Being Put To Test In Oregon
  3. ↑ Gorney, Cynthia (29 December 1978). "The Rideouts: Case Closed, Issue Open: Questions on Oregon's Landmark Rape Case an Acquittal". The Washington Post.
  4. 1 2 Woodworth, Whitney (14 October 2016). "Marion County Man from Infamous Spousal "Rape" Trial Arrested on Rape Charges". Statesman Journal.
  5. 1 2 Finkelhor, David; Yllo, Kersti (1985). License to Rape: Sexual Abuse of Wives. New York: The Free Press. p. 171.
  6. ↑ Jackson, Aubrey L. (May 2005). "State Contexts and the Criminalization of Marital Rape Across the United States". Social Science Research. 51: 290–306. doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.10.001. PMID   25769868.
  7. ↑ Evenson, Janet (28 December 1978). "Rideout Acquitted of Wife Rape Charge". Oregon Statesman.
  8. ↑ Jeffords, Charles R.; Dull, R. Thomas (August 1982). "Demographic Variations in Attitudes Toward Marital Rape Immunity". Journal of Marriage and Family. 44 (3): 755–762. doi:10.2307/351597. JSTOR   351597.
  9. ↑ Fast, Julius; Fast, Timothy (1997). The Legal Atlas of the United States. New York: Facts on File, Inc. pp. 89–91.
  10. ↑ "The National Center for Victims of Crime - Library/Document Viewer". Ncvc.org. Retrieved 2012-05-14.
  11. ↑ Woodworth, Whitney (13 August 2016). "Rape and Marriage: A Look Back at the Rideout Case". Statesman Journal.
  12. ↑ Selsky, Andrew (18 March 2017). "Oregon man accused of raping his wife in 1978 gets 16 years in other sex assaults". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
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