California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Gomez, H036377 (Cal. App. 2012):
In this case, we agree with the People that there was no evidentiary basis for instructing the jury on statutory rape as a lesser offense of counts 1 and 2. (People v. Huggins, supra, 38 Cal.4th at p. 215.) First, there is "the long-standing presumption that children under age 14 cannot give legal consent to sexual activity." (People v. Soto (2011) 51 Cal.4th 229, 248, fn. 11.) And, when the law " 'implies incapacity to give consent, . . . this implication is conclusive. In such case the female is to be regarded as resisting, no matter what the actual state of her mind may be at the time. The law resists for her.' " (Id. at p. 248, quoting People v. Verdegreen (1895) 106 Cal. 211, 215.)
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