A Brooklyn Supreme Court judge has broadened the range of sex crimes for which husbands can no longer claim clemency under the “marital exception.”
While the Court of Appeals held the marital exception for rape unconstitutional in 1984 and the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, extended the ruling to first-degree sexual assault in 1992, Supreme Court Justice John M. Leventhal’s decision marks the first time that a New York court has held that husbands can be found guilty of third-degree sexual assault.
