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OKLAHOMA — An appeals court in Oklahoma has set off a fierce debate after it ruled that oral sex with an individual while they’re unconscious due to alcohol intoxication is not rape.

Last month’s ruling stems from a 2014 case of a 17-year-old boy accused of assaulting a 16-year-old girl after offering her a ride to her grandmother’s house.

According to The Guardian, the two had been drinking at a Tulsa park with friends. Witnesses say the victim was intoxicated and had to be carried to the boy’s car.

The girl was unconscious when she was dropped off. She was taken to the hospital and given a test where her blood alcohol content was above .34.

The hospital staff also conducted a sex assault examination.

The test confirmed that the boy’s DNA was discovered around the girl’s mouth and on the back of her legs. The boy claims the girl consented to performing oral sex, but the girl had no recollection of that, The Guardian reports.

The boy was charged by prosecutors with forcible oral sodomy, but the trial judge dismissed the case.

“Forcible sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation,” the decision read.

The court says it based its unanimous ruling on current state law.

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