Wednesday December 12 1:13 PM ET
By JEROME SOCOLOVSKY, Associated Press Writer
MADRID, Spain (AP) - Women's groups condemned Spain's justice system Wednesday after the Supreme Court reduced the sentence of a rapist because he was drunk, the latest in a string of rulings in which the aggressor's drinking and the victim's past were seen as mitigating factors.
``What is happening in our country is a monstrosity,'' said Tina Alarcon of the Federation of Aid Associations for Sexually Abused Women. ``Some of these judges exhibit a male chauvinism that is right out of the Middle Ages.''
On Monday, the high court quashed the sentence in the conviction of 18-year-old Marcos Gonzalez Rodriguez for raping a mentally retarded girl while two friends pinned her down.
The five male justices cut Rodriguez's sentence from 131/2 to eight years and those of co-defendants Manuel Rodriguez Bidault and Rafael Rodriguez Racca from 12 and six years to two years each because the lower court failed to take account what the court called ``very valid'' mitigating circumstances.
``Having ingested alcoholic beverages throughout the night, the three accused manifested an intellectual capacity that was slightly below average,'' the Supreme Court ruling said. ``Taken together, these may be considered to have keenly affected their volitional faculties.''
The assault took place three years ago as the defendants left a pub at 4 a.m. and offered to give the girl a lift home in the northwestern town of Ourense. After she saw she was not being driven toward home, she tried to escape by jumping from the car three times, the ruling said.
The age of the victim was not immediately available.
Last spring, a Barcelona court sparked an outcry when it handed down a minimum six-year sentence to a policeman who forced a 13-year-old girl to perform oral sex at gunpoint. The court said it considered the victim's previous sexual experience as a mitigating factor.
According to Micaela Navarro of the opposition Socialist party, a study over a six-month period last year found 56 court cases in which sentences were reduced against men who sexually assaulted or violently abused women.
``There is a collection of many cases in which courts are taking as mitigating factors conditions which should be aggravating factors,'' said Marisa Soleto of the Women's Foundation.
Women's rights and rape victims' organizations have helped the Socialist party draft a proposed ``Law against Gender Violence,'' which would expand legal protections for victimized women and provide stricter standards for mitigating factors.
A debate on the legislation is expected this month.
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On the Net:
Fundacion Mujeres (Spanish), http://www.fundacionmujeres.es
Spain's parliament (Spanish), http://www.congreso.es
(This is a cached version of an article originally located at http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011212/wl/spain_rape_leniency_1.html )