Idaho’s laws make prosecuting rape difficult from all perspectives

Article here. Excerpt:

'“Once a citizen is labeled a sex offender, it’s the same as a civil death penalty,” he said. “We’ve made the penalties so severe that offenders now are disillusioned to admit wrongdoing, and as a result we’re having many more trials and many more acquittals.”

He believes that the laws have consistently grown in favor of the accuser for the past 20 years. One thing that makes rape charges hard to defend against is the rape shield law. Under this law, the sexual history of the accuser is not allowed to be used in the defense of the accused, unless the accuser has made false allegations of sex crimes in the past, the accused believes that someone else was the source of semen, the accused has a history of sexual behavior with the accuser or if the accuser was engaging in sexual behavior with other parties at the time of the alleged attack.'