Until now, New York City still had crimes from another era in force, such as the case of adultery, which was finally abolished this Friday from its legal code.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed an order this Friday that puts end of a crime declared in 1907 and that “t” was defined as adulteryAnyone who has a sexual relationship with another person while having a living spouseor when the other person has a living spouse.”
The same year, the New York Times published an article recounting the first arrests made under the new law: a couple who lived together were arrested and they had to pay 500 dollars (a fortune at the time) to be released temporarily. They had been reported by the man’s wife. According to state legislator Charles Lavine, who promoted legislative reform, a dozen people have been persecuted for this crime over the past 50 yearsand of these, only five resulted in a conviction.
The last known case, recalls NBC television, dates back to 2010, when a woman was caught in the middle of a sexual act in a park, but there was no trial because the accused had pleaded guilty in exchange for a slight penalty. The same channel recalls that adultery is still a crime in several states of the Union and that it is used almost exclusively to force divorce cases, but that they very rarely result in a conviction.
