An Oklahoma House member makes good on his promise to attempt fixing the state’s forcible sodomy law.
In late March, the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled a 2014 Tulsa case of a 17-year-old boy forcing a severely drunk 16-year-old girl to perform oral sex was correctly dismissed. The court said the law was written in such a way it doesn’t apply to intoxicated victims.
Rep. Scott Biggs said last week he would change his victim notification bill. He presented the amended bill in conference committee Wednesday.
"The conference committee report on House Bill 2398 deals with the embarrassment that Oklahoma suffered last week as result of an improper court ruling that allowed a rapist to walk free," Biggs said.
"Oklahoma wants to protect victims of sexual assault, and there's no room for court interpretation when they follow this new statute."
Biggs assured his colleagues the changes won’t face technical hurdles in the legislature because the amended version deals with the same title of state law as the previous version.
Lawmakers have three weeks to get the bill out of conference committee and through both chambers of the legislature.
