2015-SC-000487 (February 16, 2017)
TO BE
PUBLISHED –
Rex Murphy met a young man in church and later became his
Sunday school teacher. After the young man turned sixteen, Rex and he
began a sexual relationship. Rex told the sixteen year old that he had
special powers and could sense that he was homosexual so he would help him
resist the urges. The sexual relationship started when Rex allegedly
asked the young man to put his penis in Rex’s rectum and ended when Rex’s wife
almost discovered the two engaged in a sexual act. The young man said
that he did these sexual things with Rex because he was afraid that if he did
not do them, that Rex would use his magic powers to erase his mind. The
Kentucky Supreme Court held that threats to use “black magic” in order to erase
someone’s mind were not threats of physical force. And, that the threats
of the use of “black magic” were not temporally related to the sexual
encounters; i.e. the threats did not coerce the young man into the acts.
As a result, the Kentucky Supreme Court concluded that Rex was entitled to a
directed verdict on the charges of First Degree Sodomy and First Degree Sexual
Abuse.
The Court also had strong words against the Commonwealth’s closing arguments in
the case and admonished the Commonwealth not to repeat the conduct.
Contributed by John Landon
