In the wake of Gov. Kathy Hochul appointing state Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor this week in the controversial “Cornell 7” case, state Sen. Michelle Hinchey is calling on her counterparts in the state Assembly to pass a law that would close the “voluntary intoxication” loophole in New York’s sexual assault statutes.

In the past week, the allegations of a woman who’s accusing in a civil suit that seven fellow Cornell University students drugged and raped her at a fraternity party in 2024 have sparked anger and outrage on a global scale. But the fact that state law currently holds that if a victim became “voluntarily intoxicated” by choosing to consume alcohol or drugs, the victim isn’t legally considered unable to consent unless they were completely unconscious at the time of the attack. This, legal analysts and lawmakers say, makes prosecuting some sexual assault cases a lot more difficult.

“Basically, right now those who commit sexual assaults on someone who’s voluntarily intoxicated, they have a get out of jail free card and we’ve got to end that,” Manhattan Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz told Spectrum News 1.

In a Facebook post Thursday night, Hinchey, a 2009 graduate of Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said it’s long past time for that loophole to be legislatively closed.

“Anyone who knows me knows that I am a stalwart champion for Cornell [University] which makes the reports over the last week that much more upsetting to me,” Hinchey (D-Saugerties) posted. “Women have spent generations being told to adjust the way we live, move, dress and interact with men in order to stay safe from sexual violence. We are constantly told it is our responsibility to not end up in ‘unsafe’ situations.

“But let’s be clear. These situations are only unsafe because someone else made the decision to make them so. In the case of the Cornell 7, instead of letting their friend sleep, they decided to exploit her, use intoxication and the fact that she wouldn’t remember to rape and assault her. What’s worse is that when women report these horrific experiences, the systems we have to help us constantly fail us.

“In New York, we’ve been trying to change our state’s [voluntary intoxication loophole] to help victims in these exact situations, so that people in power can no longer turn a blind eye. The [state] Senate passes this law every year. Let’s finally get it done.”

She’s referring to bill S.10632, which would prohibit “the use of intoxication of the victim as a defense in sex crimes where the victim is under the influence of any drug, intoxicant, or other substance to a degree which rendered the victim temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling such person's conduct and such condition was known or reasonably should have been known to a person in the actor's situation.”

Despite passing the state Senate in June by a 60-0 vote, the bill remains stuck in an Assembly Committee. If the bill doesn’t get the nod from Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, it won’t get to the Assembly floor for a vote.

“I’m encouraged that the DA has reopened the case and the governor is calling for an independent review. We need to take the findings of that review incredibly seriously and act on them,” Hinchey’s post continued. “But, most importantly, I believe we are all indebted to Jane Doe. Her decision to go public, to reject the stigma and shame that so often, and incorrectly, accompanies these experiences, to embrace vulnerability and relive what I’m sure was the worst day of her life, has lit the world on fire. Let’s hope we can at least make some change. We owe every Jane Doe that respect.”