Pregnancy a factor in rape sentence
Published 10:21 pm Thursday, August 28, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — A sexual assault that leaves a victim pregnant may be punished more severely than one that did not result in pregnancy, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.
The state court said a pregnancy may be considered “great bodily injury.”
“We conclude that here, based solely on the evidence of the pregnancy, the jury could reasonably have found that 13-year-old K. suffered a significant or substantial physical injury,” wrote Justice Joyce Kennard for the court.
The court ruled in the Santa Clara County case of Gary Cross, who repeatedly had sexual intercourse with his 13-year-old step-daughter while her mother worked. The teenager, identified as K., became pregnant, and Cross arranged for her to have an abortion. Because she was 5 1/2 months pregnant, the abortion was performed surgically.
The jurors at Cross’s trial were told they could find that Cross personally inflicted “great bodily injury” on the girl as a result of her pregnancy or the abortion. The jury reached that finding, which mandated a 15-year-to life sentence. Without that verdict, the defendant would have received a more lenient sentence.
Cross appealed, arguing that a pregnancy without complications could not constitute a substantial injury, nor could an abortion he did not perform. The state high court agreed with Cross that the abortion was not an injury he personally inflicted, but decided the pregnancy could be considered a significant injury under the law.
The court cited a prosecutor’s trial argument that the victim was “carrying a baby for 22 weeks … in a 13-year-old body.” A DNA test on tissue samples from the fetus showed a 99.99 percent probability that Cross was the father.
Although the court ruled unanimously that the girl’s pregnancy amounted to substantial harm, the justices split 5-2 on whether to declare that every pregnancy stemming from sexual assault would amount to a great injury. The majority said that was a question for juries to decide based on the facts of the case.
