Julio Morales was accused of entering a woman’s bedroom after her boyfriend had gone home and after the woman had fallen asleep, initiating sexual intercourse while she was sleeping and under the influence of alcohol. The victim, who was not awake to see her boyfriend leave, believed the rapist was the one she was dating – until a ray of light flashed across his face, revealing his identity.

The woman pressed charges and Morales was sentenced to three years imprisonment. But California’s Second District Court of Appeals lifted these charges and called for a retrial after examination of an 1872 law, which considers a crime a rape only if the sleeping or unconscious victim “submits under the belief that the person committing the act is the victim’s spouse.” If the victim had been married, the act would have been considered a rape, but the law does not protect against a perpetrator deceiving a woman into believing he is her boyfriend.

“A man enters the dark bedroom of an unmarried woman after seeing her boyfriend leave late at night, and has sexual intercourse with the woman while pretending to be the boyfriend,” the court said in its ruling. “Has the man committed rape? Because of historical anomalies in the law and the statutory definition of rape, the answer is no, even though, if the woman had been married and the man had impersonated her husband, the answer would be yes.”