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.
 

(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.