North Carolina legislature closes sexual assault legal loopholes

State lawmakers in North Carolina voted unanimously Thursday to close two legal loopholes on sexual assault in the state.

One provision said that a person cannot be guilty of rape if another person agrees to sex, even if the person withdraws their initial consent. The second loophole states that it is not a crime to have sex with a person who is incapacitated, such a through drugs or alcohol, if the person is responsible for their own conditions.

The bill, known as Senate Bill 199, will now go to the desk of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is expected to sign the legislation into law, according to NBC News. The North Carolina Senate passed the bill 49-0 Thursday morning, and the state’s House voted 108-0 Thursday afternoon, according to WRAL.  

{mosads} The bill represents “an incredible victory for women’s rights and protections for victims of sexual assault,” said state Sen. Jeff Jackson, a Democrat representing Mecklenburg County, NBC News reported. North Carolina was the only state in the nation where sexually assaulting a person after that person revoked consent was not considered a crime, according to WRAL. 

Jackson has tried for the last four years to introduce independent legislation addressing the revoking of consent loophole, but the language was ultimately added to SB199 this year, according to NBC News.   

SB199 also included a range of other measures protecting sexual assault survivors, including increasing the statute of limitation for a child sexual assault victim to sue from 21 to 28, expanding the duty of anyone over 18 to report knowledge of sexual assault against a child, and other new language. 

The consent loophole emerged after a 1979 North Carolina State Supreme Court decision stated that “if the actual penetration is accomplished with the woman’s consent, the accused is not guilty of rape, although he may be guilty of another crime because of his subsequent actions.”

North Carolina was one of the last states to make rape between married people illegal in 1993. 

The bill was strongly supported by North Carolina district attorneys, who said the loopholes blocked their ability to prosecute some sexual assault allegations, WRAL reported.

“There’s just an enormous amount of benefit for all of these things,” District Attorney Ashley Welch, whose district includes six southwestern counties of North Carolina, told WRAL. “This would allow us to more aggressively go after someone who engages in non-consensual (activity).”

The Hill has reached out to Cooper for comment. 

If you are a sexual assault survivor you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or reach it online at hotline.rainn.org/online.