ALBANY, New York — On Friday, New York overturned a rarely used, over-a-century-old law that made cheating on your spouse a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a measure eliminating the statute, which was enacted in 1907 and has long been deemed archaic and difficult to execute.
“While I’ve been fortunate to share a loving married life with my husband for 40 years — making it somewhat ironic for me to sign a bill decriminalizing adultery — I know that people often have complex relationships,” added the woman. “These issues should be handled by these individuals, not our criminal justice system. Let’s finally get rid of this ridiculous, out-of-date statute.”
Adultery bans are genuinely lawful in certain states, and they were implemented to make it more difficult to seek a divorce at a period when proving a spouse cheated was the only way to obtain a legal separation. Charges have been infrequent, and convictions are more rarer. In recent years, some states have taken steps to remove their adultery laws.
Adultery is defined in New York as “sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he or she has a living spouse.” According to a New York Times report, the state’s statute was used for the first time a few weeks after its implementation to arrest a married man and a 25-year-old woman.
State Assemblymember Charles Lavine, the bill’s proponent, stated that approximately a dozen persons had been accused under the law since the 1970s, with only five of those cases resulting in convictions.
“Laws are intended to protect our community and prohibit antisocial behavior. “New York’s adultery law served neither purpose,” Lavine said in a statement Friday.
The state’s statute appears to have last been utilized in 2010, against a woman caught performing a sex act in a park, but the adultery charge was later withdrawn as part of a plea agreement.
In the 1960s, New York considered eliminating the statute when a state panel entrusted with assessing the penal code found it nearly hard to execute.
According to a 1965 New York Times article, lawmakers were initially in favor of eliminating the prohibition but later voted to preserve it after a politician argued that doing so would make it appear as if the state was officially supporting infidelity.