Idaho Senate votes to amend rape law

BOISE - If a 16- or 17-year-old girl has consensual sex with her 18- or 19-year-old boyfriend, Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, says the boy shouldn’t be convicted of felony rape and branded a sex offender for life. That’s the current law in Idaho, the eastern Idaho senator told his fellow senators today, and it’s been ruining young men’s lives.

“In most states, in fact 35 states, the age of consent is 16,” Hill told the Idaho Senate today. In Idaho, it’s 18. Under his bill, SB 1385, the age of consent would remain 16, except in cases where the girl’s partner is less than three years older than her. Full story.

Do you think this bill will make it through the House? Should it?