Recent Court Actions

The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a conviction for criminal transmission of HIV.  The man, Adam Donald Musser, is serving 50 years for having unprotected sex with four women, knowing he had HIV.  At least one of the women is HIV+.  This is not unique to the United States, or Iowa, although it may be hard to meet the burden of proof with regard to mental state.

In NM, a biological father just won custody over the adoptive parents of a toddler.  The biological father knew that the biological mother was pregnant, and made no moves to indicate interest in custody until two years after the child had been placed with his adoptive parents. The father did not give his consent to the adoption, and there was not enough proof that he had abandoned the child, said the court.  The presumption is that a biological parent is a fit parent, and it is the burden of the state to prove that he is not. 

India is considering having only female judges oversee rape trials.  India, frankly, has a horrible history of recognizing sexual assault and abuse, not to mention that it was only recently that domestic violence was criminalized.  I'm not convinced that having women as the judges or attorneys is the only way to have a fair trial - I don't see why there couldn't be more training for the entire judicial system, and a strict enforcement of sanctions for inappropriate behavior by both attorneys and judges.  From research I did years ago: the laws regarding sexual assault and rape in India are gender-biased (e.g. men cannot be victims of rape).  The average sentence for violation of "unnatural offenses" under which child sexual assault is prosecuted, is 5 years.  Penalties for raping a minor were harsher than for raping an adult woman.  There was no provision for marital rape, or rape under false pretenses or economic duress - pretending to be a woman's husband & having sex with her carried no penalty.  And that's all I can find from my short project.

Also: via feministing, I am pissed about the anti-choicers in Cleveland, and I am even more pissed that antis from CA are interfering in OH abortion politics, which suck anyway.