Statutes: Tennessee

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

(1) Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act and the defendant is armed with a weapon or any article used or fashioned in a manner to lead the victim reasonably to believe it to be a weapon;
 

(2) The defendant causes bodily injury to the victim;
 

(3) The defendant is aided or abetted by one (1) or more other persons; and
 

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

(B) The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is:
 

(i) Mentally defective;
 

(ii) Mentally incapacitated;
 

(iii) Physically helpless; or
 

(iv) A vulnerable adult, as defined in § 39-15-501, with an intellectual disability.
 

(4) The defendant knows that the defendant is infected with HIV. As used in this subdivision (a)(4), “HIV” means the human immunodeficiency virus or any other identified causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome;
 

(b)(1) Aggravated rape is a Class A felony.
 

(2) Notwithstanding title 40, chapter 35, a person convicted of a violation of this section shall be punished as a Range II offender; however, the sentence imposed upon such person may, if appropriate, be within Range III but in no case shall it be lower than Range II.