Does sex assault law apply to necrophilia?

By: dmc-admin//March 10, 2008//

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Was it sexual assault if the intended victim was already dead?

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is taking up that issue Wednesday as it tries to decide whether a state statute criminalizing sex with a corpse applies when the defendants had nothing to do with the individual’s death.

In 2006, three 20-year-old men dug up the body of a young woman who had died in a motorcycle accident, so that one of them could have sex with her. However, after they reached the body, a vehicle pulled into the cemetery and they fled.

Both the circuit court and the Wisconsin Court of Appeals found that the sexual assault statute only criminalized sex with a dead person when the defendant’s actions led to the victim’s death. Finding the statute ambiguous, the trial and appellate courts rejected the state’s argument that the statute unambiguously criminalizes necrophilia. The Supreme Court will now consider whether the statute applies to necrophilia. Oral arguments in State v. Grunke begin at 1:30 and can be heard online.

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