Controversial case, controversial verdicts, controversial overturning of the verdict! Was it rape?
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 2, 2006; Page B06
While deliberating on a rape case in December 2004, a Montgomery County jury asked the judge the following question: If a woman agrees to have sex, but while having intercourse changes her mind and withdraws consent, is she being raped if the man doesn't stop?
Circuit Court Judge Louise G. Scrivener told jurors they would need to determine that themselves, relying on the instructions they had been given. The jury returned a guilty verdict.
The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland this week overturned the conviction -- kicking the case back to Circuit Court -- and delved into the thorny legal issue of revocation of consent in rape cases. In a 51-page opinion, it faulted Scrivener for not telling jurors that under Maryland law the scenario described does not constitute rape.
The appeals court decision could lead to a new trial, or possibly a dismissal of charges, for Maouloud Baby, who was 16 at the time of the incident and is now 19. He is serving a five-year sentence.
The case stems from an encounter among teenagers Dec. 13, 2003. Baby and a classmate, Michael Wilson, then students at Watkins Mill High School in Montgomery Village, drove to a residential area with an 18-year-old woman who attended Montgomery College. Baby and Wilson, who was 15, knew the woman socially. She is not being identified because The Washington Post generally does not identify victims of sexual crimes.
The appeals court decision provides this account of the case:
After the woman parked the car, Baby and Wilson asked her to sit between them in the back seat. She did. They began fondling her and making other sexual advances. Baby got out of the car at one point, and Wilson had intercourse with her. Then Baby got back in and had a brief conversation with the woman.
"After that, we sat there for a couple of seconds, and he was like, 'So are you going to let me hit it?' And I didn't really say anything, and he was like, 'I don't want to rape you,' " the woman testified.
The prosecutor asked whether she responded to that statement.
"Yes," the woman testified. "I said that as long as he stops when I tell him to," he could do it.
The woman testified that she didn't feel that she could turn him down.
"Something just clicked off, and I just did whatever they said," she testified.
Baby began to have sex with her, but the woman said she felt pain and indicated that she wanted him to stop. She said he stopped "five or so seconds" after she made the request. Baby testified that the sex was consensual, that he explicitly told her "I'm not going to rape you" and that he stopped as soon as she expressed discomfort.
The trio returned to a McDonald's restaurant in Montgomery Village, where they had been earlier. Before departing, the woman and Wilson hugged, and she gave Baby her phone number. Hours later, the woman told a friend's mother what had happened -- a delayed reaction that prosecutors ascribed to "rape trauma syndrome."
Baby and Wilson were charged as adults with first-degree rape, among other charges. Wilson pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and was sentenced to 18 months. Baby's first trial before a jury of 11 men and one woman ended in a mistrial. In his second trial, Baby was convicted of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and third-degree sexual offense.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103225.html
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 2, 2006; Page B06
While deliberating on a rape case in December 2004, a Montgomery County jury asked the judge the following question: If a woman agrees to have sex, but while having intercourse changes her mind and withdraws consent, is she being raped if the man doesn't stop?
Circuit Court Judge Louise G. Scrivener told jurors they would need to determine that themselves, relying on the instructions they had been given. The jury returned a guilty verdict.
The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland this week overturned the conviction -- kicking the case back to Circuit Court -- and delved into the thorny legal issue of revocation of consent in rape cases. In a 51-page opinion, it faulted Scrivener for not telling jurors that under Maryland law the scenario described does not constitute rape.
The appeals court decision could lead to a new trial, or possibly a dismissal of charges, for Maouloud Baby, who was 16 at the time of the incident and is now 19. He is serving a five-year sentence.
The case stems from an encounter among teenagers Dec. 13, 2003. Baby and a classmate, Michael Wilson, then students at Watkins Mill High School in Montgomery Village, drove to a residential area with an 18-year-old woman who attended Montgomery College. Baby and Wilson, who was 15, knew the woman socially. She is not being identified because The Washington Post generally does not identify victims of sexual crimes.
The appeals court decision provides this account of the case:
After the woman parked the car, Baby and Wilson asked her to sit between them in the back seat. She did. They began fondling her and making other sexual advances. Baby got out of the car at one point, and Wilson had intercourse with her. Then Baby got back in and had a brief conversation with the woman.
"After that, we sat there for a couple of seconds, and he was like, 'So are you going to let me hit it?' And I didn't really say anything, and he was like, 'I don't want to rape you,' " the woman testified.
The prosecutor asked whether she responded to that statement.
"Yes," the woman testified. "I said that as long as he stops when I tell him to," he could do it.
The woman testified that she didn't feel that she could turn him down.
"Something just clicked off, and I just did whatever they said," she testified.
Baby began to have sex with her, but the woman said she felt pain and indicated that she wanted him to stop. She said he stopped "five or so seconds" after she made the request. Baby testified that the sex was consensual, that he explicitly told her "I'm not going to rape you" and that he stopped as soon as she expressed discomfort.
The trio returned to a McDonald's restaurant in Montgomery Village, where they had been earlier. Before departing, the woman and Wilson hugged, and she gave Baby her phone number. Hours later, the woman told a friend's mother what had happened -- a delayed reaction that prosecutors ascribed to "rape trauma syndrome."
Baby and Wilson were charged as adults with first-degree rape, among other charges. Wilson pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and was sentenced to 18 months. Baby's first trial before a jury of 11 men and one woman ended in a mistrial. In his second trial, Baby was convicted of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and third-degree sexual offense.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/01/AR2006110103225.html
