Rockville Rape Lawyer | Maryland Criminal Defense Attorney

2nd Degree Rape Maryland

Maryland`s Rape and Sexual Offense verdicts are extraordinarily detailed for the reason that these offenses are very unforgiving along with them being severe misdemeanors. What’s more, Rape is commonly separated among st 4 degrees each with varying degrees of brutality. Similarly Sexual Offenses is also largely split into 4 degrees that are also varying degrees of sexual misconduct. What is more is that both of these sexual convictions have a considerably larger negative stigma than any other crimes, of which homicide is also counted in the list. Moreover, assumed rape offenders habitually feel that the complete justice system is against them, this also includes the seemingly unbiased panel of judges as well. Additionally when you’re public record registers a sexual offense charge it will considerably impact privet and public life in different ways such as being denied work in nearly all places, not being allowed to take mortgages, even finding a home will be extremely difficult because you will have to register as a sex offender.

All rape accusations are serious offenses in Maryland thus in order to figure out how to judge what degree of rape the defendant committed we have to analyze each degree separately.

For this topic, only the second degree will be discussed. Now in order to find what constitutes 2nd-degree rape, you have to break down the vital mechanisms of rape.

The 1st mechanism is to ensure that the offender forcibly committed vaginal sexual intercourse with an unwilling victim.

The 2nd mechanism is to ensure that while the offender performed vaginal intercourse, he also did one of the subsequent offenses as well and they are:

• The raped victim is younger the 14 years of age and the offender is subsequently at least 4 years older than his victim.
• The rape occurred due to the use of force or the promise of force by the culprit on the un-consenting victim.
• Finally, the victim of the rape was either mentally challenged or was weakened mentally during the act. Moreover, this also includes the victim being physically incapacitated along with the guilty party being aware of the things when vaginal intercourse was initiated.

Furthermore, the standard penalty for 2nd degree rape in Maryland is facing a full 20 year prison sentence, however in the event that the offender is 18 years of age and his victim was younger than 14 years of age, then the sentence will be 15 years in prison due to Maryland Code of Law Section 3-304(c)

Moreover, some recent changes occurred towards sexual assault and rape laws in Maryland that came into effect in 2017. Due to these changes, Maryland sexual assault law now clearly stipulates that a victim of rape or sexual assault does not have to actually struggle in order for this to be indicated as a crime. Furthermore, a new law was implemented that states forced anal or oral sex will be treated the same as a rape charge. Additionally, another newly enacted law stipulates law enforcement in the entire state of Maryland to preserve “Rape Kits” for a period of 20 years as evidence.

If you need a Maryland rape crime defense lawyer to help you with your rape crime case in Maryland, call us at 888-437-7747. Our Maryland rape crime defense attorneys can help you. C