Sarah Wunsch

Sarah Wunsch, a civil liberties lawyer who championed citizen protections on issues of race, gender and free speech and helped persuade New York’s highest court to declare that men could be prosecuted for raping their wives, died on Aug. 17 2023 at her home in Brookline, Mass. She was 75. Wunsch was deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts for almost three decades. She was born on Nov. 18, 1947, in Brooklyn. Raised in Westport, Conn., she graduated from Cornell University in 1969, worked as a librarian and taught social studies to eighth graders. Her early commitment to advocacy, honed at Cornell, eventually attracted her to the legal profession. She earned a degree from Rutgers Law School in New Jersey. In addition to her suppose Christine Ernst, she is survived by her brothers, David, Carl, James and Gerald Wunsch.