CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Domestic violence services organizations and sexual assault services organizations say they’re hoping that this year’s removal of the sexual abuse marriage exemption from WV law will mark a turning point, where crimes in which women are the predominant victims will be made more just, and will better serve survivors.
“The law in West Virginia should protect all victims of sexual violence – regardless of whether or not they are married,” emphasized Senator Ryan Weld. “By removing the marital exemption to the felony offense of sexual abuse, we have hopefully given victims that were previously ignored by the law the confidence to come forward.”
The sexual abuse marriage exemption was removed in Senate Bill 190, and will come into effect on June 6. The revision makes it illegal for spouses to sexually abuse each other.
The passage came after several years of effort from key legislators, united with domestic violence and sexual assault victim advocates to update the law.
“Once again, West Virginia moved forward in the respect and commitment we provide for victims of sexual abuse,” said Senator Mike Woelfel. “A few of us in the Senate had waged this battle for a number of sessions, without success. In my view, this legislation was a high point of the 2024 Session.”
Victim services organizations across the state had also launched several education and awareness campaigns in past years in an effort to educate legislators and the public about the issue. The newest campaign, led by the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WVCADV) with redoubled efforts, started last year and extended through the 2024 session.
“Many people, like many legislators in previous years, did not understand the urgency of the issue,” said J.J. Johnson, Executive Director of Centers Against Violence in Elkins. “People need to really understand why we all fought so hard to get the change made and the immense, positive impact it will have on current and future generations of West Virginians.”
One of the larger problems in terms of education was that many people did not know the legal distinction between sexual assault and sexual abuse. The WVCADV education campaign was designed to help people understand the legal definitions of both crimes, and clarify that both married and unmarried people deserved the same legal protections.
Before this fix, there were no grounds to charge a spouse with sexual abuse in West Virginia—not even if they admitted to law enforcement it had occurred. It was an absolute defense to be married to the person you sexually abused, because that defense was codified in WV law.
”Most survivors didn’t know about the exception, and unfortunately would only find out when they had experienced it and were unable to pursue justice,” said Katie Spriggs, Executive Director of the Eastern Panhandle Empowerment Center (EPEC) headquartered in Berkeley Springs. EPEC is a dual program, providing services to both domestic violence survivors and survivors of sexual crimes.
Many unjust laws like this one were removed from state code back in the 1970s, but some relics have remained for nearly 50 years.
Senator Weld, lead sponsor of the bill, pointed out that Delegate Judith Herndon from Ohio County first removed the exemption from sexual assault laws in 1976. But the same exemption in sexual abuse laws remained. Herndon passed in 1980, the job revising those laws left unfinished.
A few measly words remained in WV code surrounding sexual abuse—and those two words meant that even an abusive, soon-to-be ex-spouse could forcibly seize your buttocks or breasts, or grab your sexual organs, and there was no legal recourse—even though the same abusive acts by anyone else would be illegal. Married people did not have the same protections as unmarried people.
“And although most people would generally see such actions as ‘rape,’ that term is informal. Rape is not actually a crime in our criminal code—legally, it’s either going to be called ‘sexual assault’ or ‘sexual abuse,’ depending on the act,” explained Tonia Thomas, one of WVCADV’s Team Coordinators.
Like the laws of other states, West Virginia law makes a distinction between sexual acts that include forcible penetration (sexual assault), and sexual acts that are forcible but non-penetrative (sexual abuse). And the marriage exemption still existed for non-penetrative rape.
That is, it did until this year, when legislators and service organizations finally won the battle to revise the law and remove that marriage exemption.
“I was absolutely shocked and grateful that it passed,” remarked Spriggs. “We expected a lot of pushback in the House, because our champion legislators were in the Senate.”
Joyce Yedlosky, the other Team Coordinator for WVCADV, echoed those sentiments. She and other leaders working to improve the system for survivors credit that small band of dedicated legislators for the success this year. “They just didn’t give up,” she said, “and that persistence was a real win for West Virginia survivors.”
That group of legislators includes Senators Ryan Weld, Mike Woelfel, Charles Trump, Vince Deeds, Jason Barrett, Mike Caputo, Tom Takubo, and Senate President Craig Blair, among others. Together they indefatigably answered questions for other legislators, and worked to place the bill on the agenda again and again until it finally passed.
Weld, for example, is a former prosecutor, so his ability to help educate other legislators about the bill—and his willingness to spend the time needed to do it in both chambers—was key to the bill’s passage.
In the end the bill passed in the Senate with a large majority, and—with the support of the senators and Delegates Steele and Young—it passed in the House unanimously.
“We’d had such difficulty in past years with other legislators understanding the urgency and impact of this bill,” Spriggs explained, “so to see it pass so gently out of the House this time after years of struggle was astounding.”
In terms of implementing the law, Spriggs pointed out that “The training curve will be low. Law enforcement and the justice system already know how to investigate and prosecute this crime, as it was already a law for unmarried victims. The only learning point will be to treat it as an equitable crime regardless of marital status.”