DID THE “FRIENDLY RAPIST” GET OFF LIGHT?

The law has always worked in mysterious ways, but perhaps never has it been more confounding than in the case of Guy William Marble (alias the “friendly rapist”) vs. the State of Texas. His case has raised serious questions regarding the effectiveness of the Texas Penal Code in dealing with rape. And serious questions regarding the process of criminal justice in Dallas County.

Marble, a 29-year-old public relations executive, was arrested last March for allegedly committing from 40 to 75 rapes over the past three years. Despite his peculiar “gentle” modus operandi – the origin of his nickname – Marble was at the time considered one of the most heinous felons apprehended in the city in the past decade. Initial indications were that police had done an airtight job in their two-year search for the rapist; but when the case was whisked through the DA’s office and on to the grand jury, things began to break down.

The new Texas Penal Code delineates two kinds of rape: “aggravated” (wherein the threat of death or serious harm is imminent) and “simple,” or so-called “non-violent” rape. Marble was initially indicted on five counts of aggravated rape – a charge packing a maximum life sentence. But when Chief Felony Prosecutor Russ Ormesher reviewed the indictments, he got worried. Despite Marble’s prodi-giousness as a criminal, his cases, when individually analyzed, did not appear so serious. He was uniformly nonviolent in his escapades, sometimes downright courteous and apologetic. And though he wielded a knife in most instances, he apparently did not proffer it in a manner “threatening” enough to justify the aggravated rape charge.

Ormesher did not want to modify the indictments to simple rape, which carries a maximum sentence of only 20 years. So he pulled a switch and changed the indictments to “burglary of a habitation while committing another felony [rape]” – another life-maximum felony. That alone seemed bizarre: the most notorious rapist in the history of Dallas crime standing trial for burglary. But the DA’s office had a bigger surprise: There was no trial at all. A week before Marble’s first trial was to begin, Ormesher and the defense counsel Emmett Colvin announced that Marble had accepted a plea-bargaining offer from the prosecution: a sentence of 60 years in return for an uncontested plea of guilty to all seven indictments. Sixty years seemed frighteningly lenient to many observers, particularly to several area women’s groups who protested that the light sentence seriously hindered their rape prevention efforts.

The DA’s office responded that, given the Texas parole laws regarding this offense.