HB 2709 - DIGEST

Finds that: (1) Rape is one of the most terrifying and demeaning criminal acts an individual can perpetrate against another human being and the personal trauma and anguish suffered by the victims of rape and by their families can create devastating difficulties that often take a lifetime to overcome;

(2) The pain and complications caused by rape are even more severe where deadly weapons are involved, where the victim is kidnapped or receives serious physical injuries, where the perpetrator has wrongfully entered the building or vehicle where the victim is situated, or where the victim is under the age of twelve; and

(3) The severity of punishment for those who commit rape should be commensurate with the crime the perpetrators have forced upon their victims and strict penalties for such cruel and humiliating violations of a person's dignity and honor are both appropriate and just.

Declares an intent to ensure that the penalty imposed for rape in the first degree and rape of a child in the first degree is life in prison without the possibility of release so that the victims of such rape will be better able to lead lives free of fear knowing that the perpetrators of such crimes against them will never be able to harm them again.