Last edited: February 22, 2005

 

Mississippi

  • Statute: 97-29-59, Unnatural Intercourse. Unconstitutional under Lawrence v. Texas
  • Penalty: 10 years
  • Classification: Felony
  • Restrictions: None

Statutes

§ 97-29-59. Unnatural intercourse.

Every person who shall be convicted of the detestable and abominable crime against nature committed with mankind or with a beast shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not more than ten years.

Sources: Codes Hutchinson's 1848 ch. 64 art. 12 Title 7(20); 1857 ch. 64 art. 238; 1871 § 2701; 1880 § 2968; 1892 § 1321; 1906 § 1396; Hemingway's 1917 § 1139; 1930 § 1170; 1942 § 2413.


History

            1890     Mississippi adopts a unique provision in its new constitution to exclude the public from trials for sodomy.

            1942     The Attorney General of Mississippi, revising the state’s code at the behest of the legislature, retitles the sodomy provision from “Crime Against Nature” to “Unnatural Intercourse” without editing the text of the law itself, and later the Mississippi Supreme Court rules that this action expanded the reach of the law.


News


Advocates

Equality Mississippi
P.O. Box 6021
Jackson, MS 39288-6021
Phone: In Mississippi - 601.936.7673
Outside of Mississippi - 1.877.258.0077

Not One Dime - Equality Mississippi's boycott campaign of Gulfport


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