On May 26, NYC cops, Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata were acquitted of the rape charges against them, despite testimony and evidence that might have suggested otherwise. New York state sexual assault law stipulates that someone is not capable of consent when they are "physically helpless" (e.g., "unconscious or for any other reason physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act"). Apparently, the jurors on the M & M case didn't find the alleged victim to be physically helpless, as they were shown video footage of her walking without assistance into her apartment building. Rewind to the reason the cops were at the "alleged victim's" apartment to begin with: They'd been called by the cab driver who dropped her off at home--she so inebriated that he was concerned she would need help getting into her building.
The charges were brought in the state of New York, so, of course, the case fell under New York state laws. Yet, for comparative sake, which incontrovertibly makes Lady Justice a relative figure at best, consider California state laws which say that someone cannot consent to sexual intercourse if he/she is intoxicated (i.e., it is illegal for anyone to have sex with someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol). In light of the "alleged victim's" state of inebriation, the charges might have fallen privy to an entirely different outcome had the event taken place in a different state.
At the risk of being flip, the case is a nascent example of the variations among state laws, and it appears, for the sake of these charges, ironic that the figure of Justice is a woman--albeit, one poised to wield a very phallic weapon.
Life sometimes can be relative.
Relative:
--noun
something dependent upon external conditions for its specific nature, size, etc.
