‍DV LEAP joined forces with our friends at the Network for Victim Recovery DC and the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project to successfully convince the DC Court of Appeals that its pro- survivor opinion in Victor Rogers v. U.S. must be published. Originally issued as a "MOJ" (Memorandum Opinion and Judgment), the opinion could not be used as authority on behalf of survivors in future cases. Read more about the case here.

In Rogers, the defendant was convicted for brutally beating and then raping his wife. He tried to argue that he couldn't have raped her because she submitted to sex the prior night; the trial court rejected this argument, instead believing the wife's explanation that she only submitted because she was too injured to resist and too scared that the defendant would harm her further if she did.

This important recognition and validation of a survivor's strategies to protect herself is now part of the critical body of domestic law protecting survivors in the District.