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Chronology xxi to train the disparate armies of the 13 colonies. He was discovered in bed with Lt. Gotthold Frederick Enslin. 1780 The first fellatio case in the United States is decided in Pennsylvania. Presiding judge Rice “cautioned the jury against allowing their abhorrence [sic] of this crime to prejudice them in considering the evidence against the defendant.” 1782 Vermont adopts the Elizabethan buggery law of 1562 besides common law making sodomy a capital offense. 1786 Pennsylvania is the first state to abolish the death penalty for sodomy convictions. 1792 As one of the founding states of the new United States, Virginia enacts its first sodomy statute. Kentucky adopts the laws of Virginia, including English buggery statutes that apply only to males. 1795 Illinois, as part of the Northwest Territory, adopts the English buggery law. The Northwest Territory ordinance applies sodomy only to males and makes it a capital offense. Legislative Council of the Northwest Territories adopts English common law and statutory laws passed before 1607 for the newly formed state of Indi- ana. As such, the buggery law applied only to males and proscribed death for those convicted of sodomy. Ohio adopts the common laws of England, including capital punishment for sodomy conviction. 1796 In adopting a new criminal code for New Jersey, it is the first in the nation to use the term crime against nature to describe sodomy. 1798 Rhode Island revises its criminal code and reduces the penalty for sodomy. Now, a second-time conviction for sodomy proscribes death, not the first con- viction. No other state law was structured with a tiered conviction. 1801 While under Spanish law, California executes private soldier Jose Antonio Rosas for sodomy. The 18-year-old Los Angeles native confesses and pleads for mercy claiming that he was tempted by “El Demonio” (the devil). The viceroy sentenced him to be hanged, but there is no hangman available in California at the time. On February 11, he is executed by firing squad and his body purified by burning before burial at the Santa Barbara presidio cemetery in the presence of the whole garrison. He is the last person known to be ex- ecuted for sodomy in the United States. 1802 Mississippi Territory is formed and enacts a new legal code. It includes common-law crimes, which criminalizing sodomy as a capital offense in Alabama. By 1822, the Alabama Supreme Court rules that common law is not in effect thereby nullifying the sodomy regulations. In 1830, the court reverses itself again making sodomy illegal. Mississippi has not repealed its sodomy laws.