Commonwealth v. Berkowitz

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• stating that when the defendant is charged with rape by forcible compulsion, the Commonwealth must prove more than a lack of consent
• finding that the complainant’s testimony that she stated “no” throughout the incident with the defendant “would be relevant to the issue of consent” but “not... to the issue of force”
• mere use of body weight as the sole means of force did not establish forcible compulsion
• rape statute’s “forcible compulsion” element requires showing beyond lack of consent
• rape statute's \forcible compulsion\ element requires showing beyond lack of consent
• “[W]here there is a lack of consent, but no showing of either -8- J-S23020-23 physical force, a threat of physical force, or psychological coercion, the ‘forcible compulsion’ requirement . . . is not met.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).