State v. Deyo

Dooley, J.,

¶ 27. concurring in part and dissenting in part. In these two cases, State v. Deyo, 2006 VT 120, 181 Vt. 89, 915 A.2d 249, and State v. Hazelton, 2006 VT 121, 181 Vt. 118, 915 A.2d 224, the majority has adopted a convoluted construction of the sexual assault statutes to avoid the obvious conclusion that they say what they mean and mean what they say. To reach this construction, we must also hold that the Legislature adopted the same crime twice, although it used entirely different language in doing so. The construction is inconsistent with basic canons of statutory construction as…