Wow. There are occasions when you can just sit back in utter shock after reading the paper. In Maryland, a policewoman pulling into an Exxon station saw a man hit his girlfriend three times in the face. The cop had the guy arrested (and rightfully so.) But when the girlfriend neglected to show up for the trial (reasons unknown - maybe she was, I dunno, scared?) the judge, in all his infinite wisdom, decided to acquit the boyfriend because the girlfriend may have wanted to be hit. He cited some crap about sadomasochism, and said that in order to convict the boyfriend of second-degree assault, he had to be certain that "the defendant's actions were not consented to by the victim. How do you determine that without the victim?"

An excellent response to this query was given by Byron L. Warnken, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law: "What do we do in a murder case?"

Indeed. Because some people like that kind of stuff, and they may have consented to being killed. (The Nation)