State of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee v. Kenneth A. Willis, Defendant and Appellant

Summary

The court affirmed Willis’s convictions for first-degree rape arising from sexual intercourse with a mentally retarded client under his supervision. It held that evidence of a similar sexual assault against another client was admissible to show a common plan and to rebut consent, that the coercion instruction fairly stated the law, and that the consent-instruction claim was unpreserved and did not constitute plain error. The court also held that evidence concerning the victim’s use of birth-control pills was irrelevant despite the trial court’s reliance on an incorrect exclusionary rationale.