Rape is prohibited by Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 265 Section 22(b). To convict a defendant of rape, the prosecutor must prove both of the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt:
That the defendant had sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse with a person.
“Sexual intercourse” means penetration of the female organ.Penetration can be shown by evidence of intrusion into the vagina or by evidence that the male organ touched the labia or vulva. “Unnatural sexual intercourse” includes oral and anal intercourse and other intrusions of a person’s body part or an object into the genital or anal opening of another person’s body.
That the defendant compelled that person to submit to the intercourse by force and against that person's will or by threat of bodily injury.
Force may, but need not be, physical force. Common evidence of physical force includes a violent act, an attempt to restrain a person, a struggle or an outcry. The physical force necessary to affect the intercourse itself can sometimes be enough to satisfy this element when the victim lacks the capacity to consent. Lack of capacity may be shown through evidence that the victim was asleep, unconscious, mentally disabled, or intoxicated. Intoxication by itself, however, cannot show that the victim lacked capacity to consent because, obviously, not all levels of intoxication render a person unable to consent. The conduct, appearance or words of a defendant as he presented himself to the alleged victim may also establish force. In determining whether a person was compelled by force, courts consider whether the victim was placed in fear, the effect of the fear or circumstances on the victims ability to resist, all of the events and all of the defendant’s acts. A threat of bodily harm may be explicit, but it may also be implicit in the defendant’s acts or words when the victim reasonably interpreted the acts or words to be threats. It is not required that a victim actually hear threatening words. It is also not required that a victim use physical force to resist. Whether the prosecutor proceeds on a theory of force or threat of bodily injury, he must always also prove that the intercourse was against the will of the alleged victim.
If you are convicted of rape in Massachusetts, you face imprisonment in the state prison for up to 20 years. If you are convicted of this offense for a second or subsequent time, you face imprisonment in the state prison for life or for any term of years. Rape committed with a firearm, rifle, shotgun, machine-gun or assault weapon carries a mandatory minimum ten-year state prison sentence.