Rape in the first degree
Applied in 76 court decisions — leading case Kentucky v. Hamilton (1984)
Most recently applied in Ivan Valdez Amador v. Merrick Garland (March 2022)
Effective: January 1, 1975 History: Created 1974 Ky
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(1) A person is guilty of rape in the first degree when:
(a) He engages in sexual intercourse with another person by forcible compulsion; or (b) He engages in sexual intercourse with another person who is incapable of consent because he:
1. Is physically helpless; or 2. Is less than twelve (12) years old.
(2) Rape in the first degree is a Class B felony unless the victim is under twelve (12) years old or receives a serious physical injury in which case it is a Class A felony.
Official source: Kentucky General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Kentucky statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.