I’m probably going to be eviscerated here for saying this but…
Did they actually rape her or sexually assault her? In Ohio penetrating with the fingers without consent of the victim is considered rape by law, but is that really the same as rape? You can’t get HIV, you can’t get pregnant, there are no fluids exchanged, it seems like it should be treated differently (although still very harshly). I think the amount of jail time they got seems appropriate for sexual assault, maybe even a little too lenient. But it’s categorically different from rape in my opinion (unless I’ve got my facts mixed up was there penile penetration?).
I had a girlfriend many years ago who was forced down in a back alleyway in Florence Italy and violently raped by a stranger, she wasn’t sure if she was going to be killed, and had to wait a full year for the final HIV test to come back negative before she knew she was safe. That’s a pretty terrifying year of your life. I have no sympathy for rapists whatsoever, but I think “watering down the term” is unhealthy. If the punishment for sexual assault was too weak in Ohio, they should have beefed it up, not lumped it together with rape.
I think the conflation of these terms is actually leading to undeserved sympathy for these scumbags. I don’t think anyone would feel bad for them if they were convicted with sexual assault and sentenced to the same punishment.