Rhoades v. State

ALPERT, Judge.

During the 17th century, Sir Matthew Hale wrote extensively on the legislative and decisional evolution of the crime of rape. Lord Hale observed:

It is true rape is a most detestable crime, and therefore ought severely and impartially to be punished with death; but it must be remembered, that it is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent.

1 Hale History of the Pleas of the Crown (1st American Ed.1847) 633, 635. This statement served as the genesis for the “Lord Hale instruction” which cautions…