Webster’s Dictionary defines property as something owned or possessed, or a piece of real estate. Before June 18, it also pertained to spouses married in Louisiana.
In August 2002, LSU School of Social Work graduate students Erika Keller and Tina Raab were given an assignment by their professor, Jill Murray, to choose and analyze a social policy in Louisiana for their history and policy class. Keller and Raab saw the Louisiana Rape Law as a perfect specimen.
“At the time [of the assignment] I was doing an internship at the Women’s Battered Shelter in Baton Rouge where I was working with battered and abused women,” Keller said. “I also worked with domestic violence offenders and knew about the law. A lot of women are reluctant to discuss it.”
Murray said the bill revealed a marital exemption for spouses being prosecuted for rape of their spouse. She saw the project as a good opportunity for her class to learn how to influence policy and get legislation passed.
Keller said what started out as a research paper turned into a full-time commitment of researching and lobbying to get the amendment passed.
“We turned in a 20-page research paper at the final and presented it to the class,” Keller said. “We decided to try and get this passed in legislation and it let me know that I can change things.”
To account for the extra time put into getting the bill passed, Murray developed an independent study course for the students interested in taking the project further. She assigns this project to her classes every semester, but she never had to add the extra course because no project ever went this far.
“One reason I wanted to take this project on was because I thought they had a good chance to get this changed,” Murray said. “Everybody studies in class how a bill becomes a law, but it’s different when you’re doing the steps. I wanted to empower them to be effective influences in policy making.”
Seventeen students, who had enough extra time to take on more credit hours, signed up for the independent study course, although many more wanted to be involved.
Keller said researching the project was somewhat difficult because of lack of resources and a longer process time than expected.
“There are only three books in the nation on marital rape,” she said. “I had to depend on lots of articles and talking to people firsthand. We worked on this for a month after classes ended; it didn’t even make it to the House until after May.”
The 23-year-old Keller also recalled feeling intimidated at times after learning that others tried to pass similar amendments in the past but faced opposition.
“Many people said no one would go for it,” she said. “In the past it was laughed at, but we ended up getting much more support than expected.”
One source of support came from Sen. Fred Hoyt, D-Lafayette, who authored the amendment.
“The students brought [their research] to me and said there was a loophole in the law,” Hoyt said. “I felt it was an issue that needed to be addressed because it says a male can rape his neighbor’s wife and go to jail but rape his own wife and go scot free.”
Hoyt met with students about once a week while they worked through the process.
Murray said despite what many think of Louisiana as being the last to take steps in changing outdated laws, the amendment was a sign of progress.
“We are the 18th state to change this law and there are still 32 others who have not,” she said. “We’re really ahead of the game.”
Murray said although the laws are not gender specific, it traditionally has affected women the most. She said the fact that so many states still have these laws raises the question of how far women have come.
“The lobby became effective Aug. 15, so now it’s official,” Murray said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get something started in other states because most people didn’t know this existed.”
Twelve of the students and Murray got their chance to encourage other states and schools to change any controversial policies when they went to Charleston, S.C. to receive an award for their project.
“When we started out, I thought this law was untouchable,” Keller said. “We never expected it to go as far as it did, but why shouldn’t Louisiana be progressive in something? I think with the serial killer and the heightened sexual assault awareness, anyone who would have opposed would have been laughed at.”