Utah in the Books

In my Criminal Law class the author takes a cross section of laws across the nation. For example, all the robbery cases are from Pennsylvania, then moves on to another state and a different jurisdiction. Criminal law is set up on a stautory basis, meaning each state determines how they are going to punish crimes. Generally they are pretty much the same. Utah fell under the homicide section. Let me be up front about this. I was kind of excited that this section was about Utah, until I read the cases. What the fuck!?!?! The first case is about these people who get drunk in Salina, Utah, which home to about 3,000 cows and maybe 300 people. It was 1951 so I'm sure that these were 3 or 5 people in the whole town that were purvayors of such sinny, sin, sin. A guy gets drunk at a dance and makes a pass at another guys wife. Well, takes her to a park to have sex when she refuses, he punches her in the face. Not cool. The defendant in the case after hearing about it from his wife the next day goes to probably the only bar in town. Drinks a few beers, starts yelling about how he wants to kill the son of a bitch that did this to his wife. So his friend picks up the guy, brings him to the bar, and the defendant beats the living shit out of him and the guy dies two hours later. The most embarassing part is where the Utah Supreme Court Justice says, from the record, it appears that allot the charaters in this drama were a good deal below the moral standard which generally prevails in our Utah Communites. (236 P.2d 445, 451) (thanks for humoring me with the blue book cite, it was a joke but non law people might not get the humor of it). I thought Supreme Court Justice weren't supposed to decide on morality but rather the law. Ok, the exception being community standards for porn. Which brings me to my next point. The professor continues to talk about her friend who did a case in defense of a video store. If anyone remembers the "movie buffs" case, that's the one. Her friend does a survey and more porn is rented in Utah hotels then anywhere else. If anyone gets the stats for this, please let me know. (found them http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650207549,00.html) The next case is a woman who is found strangled with all of these joy of sex, supersex, and other titles of sex books around her. Guy in Magna of all places, picks up a girl at a bar and takes her back to her place. During sex, the girl takes a clock radio cord and puts it around her neck and tells the guy to pull. She dies. By the way for all you chokers and or chokees, you are more likely to die if you are being choked in the missionary position while having sex, while intoxicated. Just so you know.

At the end of the day, I'm glad I didn't raise my hand and say "hey, I'm from Utah." That's some crazy shit. Mostly because I just happen to know of a girl who likes to be choked during sex while intoxicated, who of all places lives in Utah.