adultery
Flickr photo by takomabibelotAdultery may be grounds for a divorce, but in a rare move it's being used as a criminal charge against a New York woman who had sex in a public park.

And yes, this is happening in 2010.

According to a story on Rochester's WHAM TV station, the 45-year-old woman was having sex with a 29-year-old male who wasn't her husband, and witnesses complained that there were children and families nearby.

Sounds like a pretty clear-cut case of public indecency.

So why the adultery charge? Because Suzanne Corona admitted to the act (albeit denying it was done with children around).

Adultery is technically a law-breaker in a number of states based on rarely enforced laws. So rarely used that when we hear of people like Jesse James cheating on Sandra Bullock or even governors like Mark Sanford or Eliot Spitzer cheating, we think "that SOB," not "that jailbird."

And while states such as Pennsylvania have completely repealed their adultery laws, others carry harsh penalties -- in Utah it can earn you three years in prison.

The Democrat and Chronicle in Batavia, New York, says Corona is only the 13th woman in the last 40 years to have this charge levied against her. And because her sexual partner, Jason Amend, was not married, he's walking away with only the public lewdness charges.

There's no defense for cheating, but this smacks of a woman being persecuted for her sexual proclivities. Her defense -- that her husband is transgender and they no longer have sex -- shouldn't have to be trotted out. It's up to a woman to consent to have sex with whomever she pleases and for her and her spouse to deal with the consequences.

Are we not still allowed say over our bodies?

We can choose our rights to abort (or not to abort). Choose who is a sexual partner versus a rapist. Provided it's consensual, whose business is it other than those three parties?

Well, the state's.

Marriages are granted legal status by the state, constitutionally setting an unfortunate precedent for the justice system to oversee a violation of the vows.

Should the adultery charge stand?