Lawmakers target spouses who drug, rape their partners

(AP Photo/Steve Karnowski) Jenny Teeson, center in white, of Andover, Minnesota, looks on as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signs a bill at the Capitol in St. Paul, on Thursday, May 2, 2019, repealing a Minnesota law that prevented prosecutors from filing sexual assault charges against people accused of raping their spouse. Teeson, testified before legislative committees earlier this year about how her now ex-husband drugged her and made a video of himself raping her while she was unconscious. Prosecutors dropped rape charges because of the old law, and he served just 30 days in jail for invasion of privacy. Columbus, Ohio • Witches were still being burned at the stake when Sir Matthew Hale came up with his legal theory that rape could not happen within marriage. The 17th century English jurist declared it legally impossible because wedding vows implied a wife’s ongoing consent to sex.

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