Personal security

Oklahoma legislature will fix sodomy law, lawmaker says

An Oklahoma lawmaker is promising to close what he called a "court-created loophole" in state law that blocked the prosecution of a teenager accused of sexually assaulting a drunken girl two years ago and set off cries of protest around the nation.

"I am horrified by the idea that we would allow these depraved rapists to face a lower charge simply because the victim is unconscious," Rep. Scott Biggs said earlier this week in announcing plans to rush a fix through the legislature.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled March 24 that a lower court judge was right to dismiss a forcible oral sodomy charge against the teenaged suspect because state law doesn't mention intoxication or unconsciousness among the five criteria describing the crime.