Cheating spouses may soon be free from criminal prosecution in NY after more than a century

(Image via iStock by Getty Images/Liubomyr Vorona).

The New York Senate will decide the fate of a bill that would, after 117 years, decriminalize adultery in the Empire State.

Assemblymember Charles Lavine, a Democrat, sponsored A.4714, which unanimously passed through the Codes Committee, then passed the full Assembly on Monday by a vote of 137-10. The text of the bill is only two lines long and mandates an immediate repeal of New York State Penal Law § 255.17.

That law, titled simply, “Adultery,” makes it a class B misdemeanor when a person “engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.” The law has been on the books since 1907. In New York, Class B misdemeanors carry potential sentences ranging from fines and community service to 90 days jail time.

Lavine said that it is “long past time” to remove the “archaic” statute from the state’s penal code. He added that the law, which, “criminalizes sexual behavior between consenting adults,” is rarely enforced and argued, “If a law is not enforced, there is no reason it should be maintained.”

Since 1972, 13 people have been charged with adultery under New York’s statute, Lavine’s office says. Five were convicted, and almost all were cases in which the defendant committed other crimes in addition to adultery.

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