Law: Wife Rape

The first conviction

According to the old common-law rule, a man who forces his wife to have sexual intercourse with him cannot be convicted of rape. The celebrated Rideout case in Salem, Ore., late last year resulted in the acquittal of Husband John accused of rape by his wife Greta. Attitudes are changing, however. Last week, in another Salem, in Massachusetts, James K. Chretien was convicted of raping his estranged wife Carmelina. He is believed to be the first American ever convicted of wife rape. Chretien was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Thomas R. Morse Jr. to three to five years in Walpole state prison.

Chretien, a bartender and an exMarine, was being divorced by his wife. After finishing work and a couple of beers one night, according to trial testimony, he burst into the couple's former home and dragged Mrs. Chretien upstairs to their old bedroom. In a similar case that went to trial in the same state more than a century ago, the husband was acquitted. There will undoubtedly be more wife vs. husband rape suits, particularly in Oregon, Nebraska, Delaware and New Jersey, which have all adopted statutes allowing a wife to press rape charges against her husband, even if they are living together.