Attorneys at the Women’s Law Project, in partnership with AEquitas, authored and filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of 26 additional organizations devoted to improving judicial and societal responses to victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse and exploitation.
At issue in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Eric Rogers is whether Pennsylvania’s Rape Shield Law permits defendants accused of sexual assault to introduce evidence of a victim’s criminal record for prostitution-related offenses.
Our brief argues in support of the determinations by the trial court and Superior Court that Pennsylvania’s Rape Shield Law does not permit the introduction of evidence of a victim’s criminal record for prostitution-related offenses.
You can read our brief here.
“Engaging in commercial sex, whether by choice or not, is not an invitation to be raped,” says Terry L. Fromson, WLP managing attorney and co-author of the brief. “It has no relevance to the veracity of a rape allegation. To admit a victim’s prior prostitution record as evidence of consent in a sexual assault prosecution is tantamount to a judicial declaration that people in the sex trade cannot be raped. It would require the courts to disregard not only the expansive body of evidence-based research but the very intent of Pennsylvania’s Rape Shield Law.”
Jennifer G. Long, CEO of AEquitas, which contributed to the brief, states, “We are honored to join with amici in support of survivors’ right to fair and impartial proceedings. Admission of victims’ prostitution-related arrests or convictions serves only to confuse and bias the fact-finder. The practice suggests that a survivor who has engaged in the sex trade can be assumed to consent to sex with anyone at any time and can be expected to lie about their consent. Such assumptions not only lack support in the research but ignore the incidence of wrongful convictions for prostitution and the disparate impact of the resulting unfairness on women of color.”
Eric Rogers is a convicted serial rapist who brutally assaulted, strangled, and raped women and girls he encountered on the street or public spaces in West Philadelphia between March 2011 and March 2012. In all, he was charged with 46 violent crimes against three women and two teenage girls.
Rogers appealed his convictions and is now asking the Supreme Court to carve out an exception to the Rape Shield Law to permit the admission of the past prostitution arrests and convictions of two of his five victims.
Research shows that evidence of a victim’s previous involvement in the sex trade, whether voluntary, economically coerced, or trafficked, creates a bias that adversely impacts the truth-seeking process in cases of sexual assault and exploitation. In reality, a person’s choices or behavior before being assaulted bears no relationship to the veracity of a complaint of sexual violence.
“This is a crass attempt to exploit and perpetuate the misogynist, racist, and classist biases that are vestiges of early American rape law,” says co-author Amal M. Bass, “In early American law, perceived chastity informed whether a person was considered a rape victim. We know sellers of commercial sex, disproportionately women, are more likely to be arrested than purchasers, disproportionately men. Black women were not protected at all by rape laws and today are statistically more likely to be convicted of prostitution than white women. Allowing these records to be submitted would perpetuate the very injustices the Rape Shield Law was intended to eradicate.”
Pennsylvania’s Rape Shield Law explicitly bars evidence of a rape victim’s past sexual conduct other than conduct involving the defendant, and even then only as it relates to the issue of consent. The purpose of this law is, in part, to eliminate the prejudicial influence of an archaic and dangerous body of law that protected only a certain class of victims while leaving others without justice.
The burden of a criminal record for prostitution should never bar sexual assault victims from seeking or finding justice in the courts.
The Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
July 2020: Our physical offices are still closed due to the pandemic but we are OPEN and working to serve your needs. Contact us here. Sign up for WLP’s Action Alerts. Stay up to date by following us on twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
We are a non-profit organization. Please consider making a one-time donation or scheduling a monthly contribution.
