State v. Joslin

175 P.3d 764, 145 Idaho 75, 2007 Ida. LEXIS 230
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 24, 2007
Docket32483
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 175 P.3d 764 (State v. Joslin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Joslin, 175 P.3d 764, 145 Idaho 75, 2007 Ida. LEXIS 230 (Idaho 2007).

Opinions

EISMANN, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction for statutory rape. The Defendant challenges the district court’s denial of the jury’s request to define the term “vaginal opening,” the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict, the court’s exclusion of evidence regarding the victim’s prior alleged sexual conduct, the court’s refusal to permit the Defendant’s expert to testify about the effects of alcohol on the memory and motivations to lie, and the court’s rejection of the Defendant’s arguments that he was denied the equal protection of the law and subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. We affirm the judgment of the district court.

I.FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

During a party at a friend’s house on December 26, 2002, nineteen-year-old Alexander Joslin (Defendant) met and ultimately had sexual intercourse with a sixteen-year-old girl. He was charged with rape committed in one of three ways: by having vaginal intercourse with a female under the age of eighteen, by having vaginal intercourse with a female whose resistance he overcame with force, or by having vaginal intercourse with a female who was unable to resist due to intoxication. The jury found the Defendant guilty of having vaginal intercourse with a female under age eighteen (statutory rape) and not guilty of the other two counts. He appeals, contending that the district court committed various errors during the trial and that the statutes defining the crime and fixing the punishment are unconstitutional.

II. ISSUES ON APPEAL

1. Did the district court err in failing to define the term “vaginal opening” in response to a request from the jury?
2. Was there sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict?
3. Did the district court err in excluding evidence of the victim’s prior sexual conduct?
4. Did the district court err in excluding testimony of the Defendant’s expert witness regarding the effects of alcohol on memory?
5. Did the district court err in excluding testimony of the Defendant’s expert witness offered to challenge the constitutionality of Idaho Code § 18-6101(1)?
6. Was the Defendant’s trial counsel ineffective when laying the foundation for the testimony of the expert witness?
7. Did the district court err in refusing to permit the Defendant’s counsel to use a demonstrative item during his closing argument?
8. Were there cumulative errors during the trial that require reversal of the jury’s verdict?
9. Does Idaho Code § 18-6101(1) violate the Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitutions of the United States and Idaho?
10. Does Idaho Code § 18-6101(1) violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clauses of the Constitutions of the United States and Idaho?
11. Does the requirement that the Defendant register as a sex offender consti[79]*79tute the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment?

III. ANALYSIS

A. Did the District Court Err in Failing to Define the Term “Vaginal Opening” in Response to a Request from the Jury?

The Defendant was convicted of statutory rape, which Idaho Code § 18-6101(1) defines as “the penetration, however slight, of the ... vaginal opening with the perpetrator’s penis accomplished with a female under any one (1) of the following circumstances: 1. Where the female is under the age of eighteen (18) years.” The district court instructed the jury as to the crime of rape in the wording of the statute. After deliberating for about one hour, the jury sent a note to the judge asking the following question: “Does there have to be penetration, ever so slightly, beyond the hymen to constitute penetration? What point of the anatomy (female genitals) does the tip of the penis have to pass (ever so slightly) to constitute penetration? The parts we are concerned with are the labia and the hymen.” Over objection from Defendant’s counsel, the district court refused to give the jury further clarification as to the meaning of the term “vaginal opening.” The court felt that doing so would constitute a comment upon the evidence and rendering a medical opinion. The Defendant contends that the court committed reversible error in failing to further define vaginal opening in response to the jury’s question.

“The district court’s decision whether or not to give further instructions in response to jurors’ questions is discretionary.” State v. Sheahan, 139 Idaho 267, 282, 77 P.3d 956, 971 (2003). In this case, the State called a physician who had performed a gynecological examination of the victim on the day after the rape. As part of that examination, he had taken photographs of the victim’s vaginal area with a colposcope. He testified that the photographs showed injuries to the victim’s hymen and to areas outside the vaginal opening which were caused by forced sexual penetration. During his testimony, he identified for the jury various parts of the female anatomy including the vaginal opening, the hymen, and the labia. On cross-examination, the physician opined that no one would want to undergo the trauma necessary to inflict those injuries. In response, the Defendant called a physician who testified that the photographs did not show injury to the victim’s hymen and that the other injuries did not show either force or the lack of consent. They could have been caused by vigorous consensual sexual activity or the lack of lubrication. The physician called by the Defendant testified that the labia were external to the vaginal opening, as were the injuries suffered by the victim. The defense physician also testified that the photographs and injuries were not evidence of penetration of the vaginal opening, nor did they rule out such penetration and they were not evidence of force, nor did they show lack of force. There was no conflict between the physicians as to where the vaginal opening was, and the Defendant conceded on appeal that their testimony was accurate in that regard.

In addition, the victim testified that the Defendant had penetrated her vagina with his penis and that she felt it in her vagina. A Blackfoot police officer testified that he questioned the Defendant during the early morning hours of December 27, 2002. The Defendant stated that the victim took a fancy to him, but he told her she was only seventeen 1 and that was a line he was not going to cross. He said that later that night one thing led to another and that he had sexual intercourse with the victim, but did not ejaculate inside her. When the officer asked the Defendant what he meant by sexual intercourse, the Defendant answered that he inserted his penis into the victim’s vagina. The police officer’s testimony was neither impeached nor challenged, and the Defendant did not testify.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
175 P.3d 764, 145 Idaho 75, 2007 Ida. LEXIS 230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-joslin-idaho-2007.