By Lauren Smith
MINNESOTA – In Minnesota news other than the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, the Minnesota Supreme Court this week declared someone cannot be charged with sexual assault if the victim consumed drugs or alcohol voluntarily.
In May of 2017, a woman was refused entry into a bar for being too intoxicated. Defendant Francois Khalil approached her and invited her and a friend to a party. However, there was no party.
According to court records, when they arrived, the victim “blacked out” and when she woke up, she found him assaulting her. The victim stated that she told Khalil that she did not want to have sex.
He allegedly responded “but you’re so hot and you turn me on.”
The woman then passed out again, and she testified that when she woke up later, her shorts were around her ankles.
In 2019, Khalil was convicted of third degree criminal sexual conduct. After this ruling, he now gets a new trial.
Current law states that in the case of rape, someone is considered “mentally incapacitated” and therefore cannot consent to sex if substances were “administered to that person without that 
person’s agreement.”
In the court’s unanimous opinion, Justice Paul Thissen stated that there must be a new trial because the victim consumed substances voluntarily and therefore this does not meet the standard for mental incapacitation.
Justice Thissen went on to write that the lower court’s definitions of mental incapacitation “unreasonably strains and stretches the plain text of the statute.”
Furthermore, the opinion states that “if the legislature’s intended meaning is clear from the text of the statues, we apply that meaning and not what we may wish the law was or what we think the law should be.”
Because the standard is not met, Khalil could instead be charged with fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, resulting in up to one year in prison, a stark different to his previous third degrees conviction in which he could be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Earlier this year, Minnesota House of Representatives member Kelly Moller introduced legislation that changes the current state law to make it clear that anyone intoxicated, whether voluntarily or not, cannot give consent.
“This is something that will make a difference for those who do come forward and have these sets of circumstances, that their cases will at least be chargeable,” Moller continued.
Co-sponsor of the bill Representative Marion O’Neill stated that “it is time now to pass these solutions so that no victim ever has to be denied justice over a technicality.”
In addition, the proposed bill would make sexual extortion, or when someone makes threats that do not involve physical harm, a crime.
Moller also stated that of the 10 million women in the United States who have been raped, most became drunk by choice. She also stated that perpetrators prey on people in a weakened and more unaware state like this.
“Victims who are intoxicated to the degree that they are unable to give consent are entitled to justice,” she said. “Our laws must clearly reflect that understanding, and today’s Supreme Court ruling highlights the urgency lawmakers have to close this and other loopholes.”
Lauren Smith is a recent graduate from UC Davis. She received a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology. She is from San Diego, California.
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