The victim, in better days...
Posted on 09/29/2008 11:32:53 AM PDT by Renfield
MADISON, Wis. (AP) ― The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated sexual assault charges against three young men accused of digging up a corpse so one of them could have sex with it.
In a 5-2 decision, the court said Wisconsin law makes sex acts with dead people illegal.
The ruling reinstates third-degree attempted sexual assault charges against twin brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke and Dustin Radke, all 22. The charges carry a punishment of up to 10 years in prison.
A circuit court judge and an appeals court had dismissed those charges, saying Wisconsin law does not ban sex with a corpse. Those decisions prompted some outrage and a push by a state lawmaker to change the law to ban conduct known as necrophilia.
Justice Patience Roggensack, writing a majority opinion with three other justices, said state law bans sexual intercourse with anyone who does not give consent "whether a victim is dead or alive at the time."
"A reasonably well-informed person would understand the statute to prohibit sexual intercourse with a dead person," she wrote.
Jefren Olsen, a public defender who represented Radke, called the decision dead wrong on the law, which he said was never intended to punish necrophilia.
"Obviously, the facts are rather notorious and not the easiest to deal with," he said. "I assume that had some impact."
Police say the three men went to a cemetery in Cassville in southwestern Wisconsin in 2006 to remove the body of a 20-year-old woman who had been killed the week before in a motorcycle crash.
Nicholas Grunke had seen an obituary photo of her and asked the others for help digging up her corpse so he could have sexual intercourse with it, prosecutors say.
Authorities say the men used shovels to reach her grave but were unable to pry the concrete vault open. They fled when a car drove into the cemetery and were eventually arrested.
The men were charged with attempted third-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor attempted theft charges. The case has been on hold as prosecutors appealed the dismissal of the assault charges.
In a dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley called the conduct heinous and said it should be banned for public policy reasons. But she said lawmakers did not do that when they wrote the law in question in 1986.
She said the law was meant to allow prosecutors to bring sexual assault charges in rape-murder cases when they could not prove whether the victim was alive at the time of the rape.
Suzanne Edwards, a lawyer representing Nicholas Grunke, said she was disappointed in the decision. She said the men will be arraigned on the charges and have a chance to plead not guilty.
More bad news for Obama. A person in Wisconsin having sex with a corpse represents 2 Democrat voters.
Sounds messy.
Isn’t this really a dead issue?
and, here in Massachusetts, awaiting for the next step allowing marriage with (or between) them...
Your name is appropriate for the post. This is just sick and I cannot believe there is not a law or morality that prevents this from happening...
It does remind me of a story by William Faulkner. His "A Rose for Emily" is a very dark tale. But Faulkner had a very dark imagination.
Democrats and other liberals are not going to like this!
Few things are more disgusting then necropervs.
The victim, in better days...
...And I hope there are STIFF penalties.
The perpetrators.
I wonder if any of these fellows has trouble getting a date now? (Maybe not, if they are in prison...)
Well, don't you think that's being a little bit JUDGMENTAL????
/s
The one on the right looks like a young Emo Phillips.
Another typical day in Wisconsin. Ed Gein and Jeffery Dahmer were just the two they caught.
Well, it damned sure ain't gonna do much for my dance card, either.
I’m obviously being sarcastic.
my she’s dead cute . . . (Sorry!)
This is one of those things you wouldn’t think you would need a law against. Wow, just wow.
This explains why my buddy in Kenosha divorced his second wife.
I have heard of Dahmer but had to look up Gein. Very gruesome. I wonder if Gein and Dahmer will be voting Democrat this fall.
But who is it hurting?
/sarc
The title made me think they were talking about my ex.
It’s oppression by the MAN, ...man.
Democrat arguement:
End discrimination against the dead.
They can vote and collect welfare checks.
Why can’t they have sex?
Dammit; there goes my holiday in Wisconsin.
HEAR...HEAR
About the only visitors we get are those pesky community organizers scrounging for voter registrations....a better class of visitors to our graveyards would be most welcome.
As disgusting, vile, and outright sick as this act is, and I hope G_d will make sure that their lives are a living hell, this is sort of legislating from the bench. These guys didn’t commit a crime and for a court to trump up a crime to charge these sick creeps with is unconstitutional.
I hope they get free, but I also hope that everybody in their state and region knows that they screwed the body of what seemed to be a very beautiful, sweet young woman.
If karma serves its purpose, this law should be named after them, so everybody knows that they’re perverts.
Oh, by the way, I have a few friends in their area of Wisconsin. Word is, they’re not going to be very comfortable.
Gives a whole new meaning to the words, “You are drop dead gorgeous my Dear.”
My prayer to the family and loved ones. I am sure they are as disturbed about this as I would have been. It is fortuitous that she was interred in a vault.
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