FINAL BILL REPORT

                  SSB 6518

                          C 242 L 98

                      Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Increasing the degree of rape when the perpetrator incapacitates the victim.

Sponsors:  Senate Committee on Law & Justice (originally sponsored by Senators Roach, Benton, Long, Oke, Zarelli, Rossi, Sellar, Snyder, Johnson, Horn, McDonald, Hale, Strannigan, McCaslin, Prentice, Schow, Fraser, Deccio, Swecker, Morton, Goings, Bauer, Rasmussen and Haugen).

Senate Committee on Law & Justice

House Committee on Criminal Justice & Corrections

Background:  Rape in the first degree is committed by a person who engages in sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion where the rapist or an accessory uses a deadly weapon or what appears to be a deadly weapon, kidnaps the victim, inflicts serious physical injury, or feloniously enters a building or vehicle where the victim is located.  Rape in the first degree is a class A felony and Astrike@ under the persistent offender provisions.  Rape in the first degree is sentenced at level XII (93 to 123 months for a first offense).  Offenders are not eligible for the Special Sex Offender Sentencing Alternative.

It has been proposed that when a perpetrator renders the victim incapable of consent through some action, it would be more appropriate to consider the offense rape in the first degree.

Summary:  Rendering a person unconscious through physical injury is included as a serious physical injury for the purposes of rape in the first degree.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate 48 0

House     98 0 (House amended)

Senate    49 0 (Senate concurred)

Effective:  June 11, 1998