Ceelo Green suffered an extreme public relations backlash when he tweeted his understanding of what is rape. After his plea to a charge of giving a women ecstasy , he aired his case on Twitter . Here is a couple of his  tweets;

In posts that were later deleted from his account, Green addressed the case, tweeting, “People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!”

“If someone is passed out they’re not even WITH you consciously! so WITH Implies consent,” he added.

It seems Ceelo is under the impression that if someone passes out that implies consent. Law enforcement in Los Angeles did not charge him with rape based upon insufficient evidence.

Tennessee’s rape law covers when someone is passed out. Here is the statutory definition of rape in Tennessee:

39-13-503.  Rape.



  (a) Rape is unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant or of the defendant by a victim accompanied by any of the following circumstances:



   (1) Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act;



   (2) The sexual penetration is accomplished without the consent of the victim and the defendant knows or has reason to know at the time of the penetration that the victim did not consent;



   (3) The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless; or



   (4) The sexual penetration is accomplished by fraud.

Here are the pertinent definitions :

 "Mentally incapacitated" means that a person is rendered temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling the person’s conduct due to the influence of a narcotic, anesthetic or other substance administered to that person without the person’s consent, or due to any other act committed upon that person without the person’s consent;



   (5) "Physically helpless" means that a person is unconscious, asleep or for any other reason physically or verbally unable to communicate unwillingness to do an act;

 

 If a person knows or has reason to know a person is helpless and there is sexual penetration , it is rape. A person passed out from drugs and  or alcohol cannot give consent to have sexual relations . Ceelo  has a complete misunderstanding of what is consent.