Crime against nature is usually an “add on” to other charged sexual assaults, such as forcible or statutory sexual offense and indecent liberties with a child. In this post, I’ll address several aspects of the offense that keep tripping lawyers up. First, what’s covered by the offense? The statute makes it a Class I felony to “commit the crime against nature, with mankind or beast.” G.S. 14-177. That doesn’t get us very far. Thus, we need to look at the case law. Cases hold that each of the following acts is a crime against nature: the inserting, by a male, of his sexual organ into the mouth or anus of another male or a female, State v. Fenner, 166 N.C. 247 (1914); State v. Harward, 264 N.C. 746 (1965); State v. Copeland, 11 N.C. App. 516 (1971), the receiving, by a male or a female, of the sexual organ of a male into his or her mouth or anus, State v. Griffin, 175 N.C. 767 (1876); State v. Chance, 3 N.C. App. 459 (1969), fellatio, State v. Poe, 40 N.C. App. 385 (1979), cunnilingus, State v. Joyner, 295 N.C. 55 (1978), analingus, and the inserting of an object into a person’s genital opening, State v. Stiller, 162 N.C. App. 138 (2004). While there are no North Carolina appellate cases on sexual acts with animals, the statute expressly includes “the crime against nature, with . . . [a] beast.” G.S. 14-177. Note that the penetration of the female sexual organ by the [...]
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