Additional Topics
For the first time in modern American history, a man faced trial for raping his wife. A national public discussion of the issue followed questioning whether a man had an absolute sexual right to his spouse's--or cohabitant's--body. Two other states besides Oregon had passed laws that did not grant married (or cohabitating) men immunity from the rape of their wives--and New Jersey was about to come…
In November, a circuit court judge denied Rideout's request to have the case dismissed on constitutional grounds. When it became clear that the criminal trial would proceed, District Attorney Gortmaker asked Judge Barber to prohibit "common law defenses," that is, a defense of John Rideout's actions based upon the common law presumption that a wife cannot refuse to have intercourse with her husban…
The lawyers made their opening arguments before Barber and a jury of eight women and four men on 20 December. The prosecution told the jury to prepare themselves for Greta Rideout's testimony that her husband had struck and raped her within sight of the couple's crying two-year-old daughter. The defense countered by saying that Greta Rideout had a "serious sexual problem" and that his 21-year-old …
On 27 December 1978, after three hours of deliberations, the jury found John Rideout not guilty. A member of the jury, Pauline Speerstra, told the press afterward that the validity of Oregon's law had not been an issue in reaching their verdict. Rather, she said, since "we didn't know who to trust," the jury had reached its verdict based upon a finding of reasonable doubt. Although John was acquit…
Spousal or marital rape occurs when a husband forces a wife to have sex with him when she is unwilling to do so. Most states have some kind of marital-rape statute, though many of these laws tend to be lax, or to apply only in situations of separated couples. There are no marital-rape laws on the books in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, or West Virginia, and in the case of Alabama …
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments Add a comment…