As Governor of Oregon, I would press the legislature to increase the penalties for 1st- and 2nd-degree rape, and use the funds saved from the Cannabis Prisoner Pardon, which I discussed in the previous post, to pay for it.
Penalties for first-degree rape in Oregon are, in my opinion, far too lenient. (Actually, I feel that rapists should be segregated for life, first serving a sentence in prison, and then being released into a surrounding city which would be an extension of the prison, but where they could lead comparable lives to citizens on the outside. However, they could never leave this city-prison. Such a program should be undertaken by the Federal Government, due to the huge costs it would impose on any single State.) But unfortunately current law only stipulates a mandatory 8 years 4 months for first degree rape. As Governor, I would seek to increase this by 50% to 12 years 6 months. Personally, I feel one count of first degree rape, which is forcible rape, deserves a sentence of 12-20 years, if approximate justice could be done.
Second degree rape (consentual sex with someone under 14) seems to me to not be a crime, if the age difference between the two participants is less than three years. How could a loving couple, 13 and 14 years old, having consentual sex, be a crime? I believe that the Netherlands has also taken this view, and changed their law so that sex between consenting children less than two years apart in age is no longer considered a crime. Certainly it doesn’t deserve the mandatory 6 years 3 months it can draw, although currently in Oregon, an age difference of less than three years may be offered as a defense.
But outside of these cases of consenting adolescents, I think the penalty for second-degree rape, which is sex with a child under 14, should also increase, perhaps by one-third, although age should be taken into consideration. (For example, a 17 year-old having consentual sex with a 13-year old might be treated much more leniently than a 30-year old.)
We need to lengthen our sentences for violent rape drastically, and as Governor, I will attempt it. If we weren’t wasting so much money persecuting, prosecuting, and jailing drug users, we’d have the money to jail violent criminals, and that is what Libertarian Law would concentrate on.
Paul Grad, paulgrad4governor.wordpress.com
Paul Grad for Governor 