I'm a law student with a Mock trial coming up.

I'm the prosecutor in an agg sexual assault, and the defense has asked the judge that we not use the word "rape" or "rapist" the entire trial.

For some reason I can't find anything other than saying that it's not prejudicial.

Thanks,

Mike

Assuming that your victim is female, the "rapist" is male, and that the use of the word "rape" describes a plain old fashioned sexual assault, how about:

"The perpetrator of the unwanted, violent, vaginal invasion by penis" for the rapist, and

"the criminal, violent, demeaning, humiliating, forceful taking of the victim's privacy, self respect, dignity and humanity by the most foul act of physically forcing the victim to be penetrated by his penis against her will and without her permission or consent, and therby placing her in fear of her very life through the high probability of exposure to any of many sexually transmitted diseases" for rape.

Perhaps, when faced with so many more forceful words, the "judge" will allow you to use plain old fashioned "rape" and "rapist", if only to make the "trial" a bit shorter.

I actually laughed out loud at that last post. I had a motion from the defense in an actual child sexual assault case to not use the word "victim" to refer to my victim. My case pled to pen time, but next time I think I may use your proposal. I would love to see the look on my judge's face. Priceless. Are they teaching these motions at some TCDLA conference or something?

I have had similar motions brought in trials that I have done, and my response usually is to say that once I've proved that a rape took place, the perpetrator is by definition a "rapist."

I assume that your defendant is arguing that "rape" is no longer a term of art, since we now refer to it as sexual assault, and the word rape does not appear in the criminal code. Nevertheless, the term is commonly understood and is descriptive of the act alleged, unlike so-called "inflammatory" appellations like "beast" or "monster" which can only be used metaphorically; i.e. there is no proof which would justify calling a person a beast, since the word commonly means an animal of some sort, but if you prove that he engaged in non-consensual intercourse by threatening harm, he has been proven o be, in fact, a rapist, and the term is no more inflammatory than the allegations themselves.

Federal Judge Throws Out Suit Against State Judge Who Banned 'Rape' Language From Trial

Anna Jo Bratton
The Associated Press
09-27-2007
A Nebraska federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against a state judge who barred anyone from saying "rape" or "victim" during a criminal trial, ruling Tuesday that the accuser failed to prove that he should intervene.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf also determined Tory Bowen didn't provide enough evidence to show her lawsuit against Lancaster County District Judge Jeffre Cheuvront wasn't frivolous.

Bowen, 24, filed a complaint earlier this month against Cheuvront, saying he violated her free speech rights by barring the words, along with the phrase "sexual assault," from the trial of Pamir Safi last November. Cheuvront said he banned the language because he was concerned about Safi's right to a fair trial.

Kopf said he could not imagine a jury being swayed because a woman uses the word "raped" instead of "some tortured equivalent for the word," but he said that wasn't his decision to make.

Earlier this month, Kopf said he was concerned that the purpose of Bowen's lawsuit was to force Cheuvront to recuse himself from the criminal case.

"Make no mistake ... the plaintiff wants me to jump right into the middle of the pending state criminal case and the upcoming third trial," Kopf wrote Tuesday.

Safi, 34, is charged with first-degree sexual assault. He said he and Bowen met at a bar and had consensual sex in October 2004. She said she was too intoxicated to give consent.

Bowen said the ban hindered her testimony during the trial because she had to pause to make sure she didn't use the barred words.

Cheuvront declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked 7-5. He declared a second mistrial in July during jury selection, citing news coverage and public protests on behalf of Bowen. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek a third trial.

A message left Tuesday for Bowen's attorney, Wendy Murphy, wasn't immediately returned. A message left for Cheuvront's bailiff wasn't returned. Judicial guidelines typically bar judges from commenting on current cases.

The Associated Press usually does not identify accusers in sex-assault cases, but Bowen has allowed her name to be used publicly because of the issue over the judge's language restrictions.