New Mexico court: Rape protections endure after death
Feb. 25, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled Thursday that legal protections against rape extend to victims who are unable to express consent — including the dead.
The high court upheld a rape conviction against a Clovis man accused of stabbing a woman and then raping her dead body.
Lorenzo Martinez was convicted of murder and rape in the 2017 stabbing death of a 57-year-old woman.
On appeal, attorneys for Martinez argued that New Mexico law requires that a rape victim be alive at the time of the crime for criminal statutes to apply.