18 yr old gets 10 years in prison for having sex with a 15 yr old...

[milo hobgoblin]

...

I just cant agree with that... thid kid was in high school. Fact is.. he was still just a kid.

ALL his peers are going to be at best... his age and the VAST majority..including the girls are younger.

If the kid had already graduated high school and wasnt in that environment where his entire universe was other high school kids... maybe there could be an arguement for stat. rape.

Its not like this kid was some 18 year old graduate who was hanging around high school kids trying to get laid. He IS a high school kid. A couple of years of age difference doesnt matter.


Hell there are thousands of girls ages 12 and up who get pregnant in this country every day... I guarun fucking tee you that many of the father are 18 and older.

 

[onerepmaximum]

I agree the sentence is too harsh but it was satutory rape.Everyone knows in the U.S. that when your eighteen you can't have sex with fifteen year olds!

Depends where you are at, too. Different states, different rules. Statutory rape includes consentual sex, just one of the participants was under age.

 

[MattTheSkywalker]

Outrageous. No proof of forcible anything.

COst to taxpayers: $400,000

 

[hooch]

http://www.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=234313


NOTE THE LAST PARAGRAPH......


The news of Dixon's arrest for rape, statutory rape, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and sexual battery seemed to take those who knew him by surprise. It seemed totally out of character for this near-4.0 student, who scored greater than 1,200 on his SAT and planned to major in education at Vandy. In the end, the jury found no basis for any of the "forcible crimes" charges, and found him not guilty on all of them. They also concluded that, as was Dixon's claim all along, the sex was completely consensual.

However, John McClellan, the Floyd County District Attorney on the case, also brought the charge of Child Molestation against Dixon. This charge was proven through a technicality, as Dixon was two years and seven months older than the girl, and Dixon had just turned 18. Even though the sex was consensual, under Georgia's relatively new Child Protection laws, this conviction carries a mandatory 10-year prison sentence without parole. According to Gumbel via the law firm representing Dixon's appeal, and not disputed by McClellan, this is the first time in Georgia's history that a high school teen was prosecuted for a felony for having consensual sex with a classmate.

The conviction — in legalese, for "statutory rape and aggravated child molestation" — at the time received little attention outside of the local media. However, an attorney in Atlanta — David Balser, of McKenna Long and Aldridge — just happened to read a small newspaper report in the Rome News-Tribune on the decision, and it piqued his interest. The deeper Balser dug, the more troubled he became with the case.

Last fall, Balser gathered his facts and called a meeting of a few friends at his firm. When he showed them what he believed had happened — that Dixon had committed a crime that in all previous cases had never resulted in any jail time, and it appeared was prosecuted in large part because Dixon was black and the girl was white — his firm gave him permission to pursue an appeal on a pro bono basis to the Georgia Supreme Court.

(Balser, it should be noted, specializes in complex business litigation at McKenna Long & Aldridge. He had no experience in civil rights appeals. In fact, none of ML&A's 400+ attorneys — whose clients serve industries as aerospace, biotech, health care and real estate — have made a career out of civil law.)

The crux of Balser's case lies in what appears to be a conflict between two Georgia laws. The first (O.C.G.A. 16-6-3) states that consensual sex between two teenagers of less than three years' age difference is a misdemeanor, not normally punishable by any jail sentence. The second (O.C.G.A. 16-6-4) states that an age difference of two or more years, when one of the two is 18 or older, necessarilly constitutes a felony child molestation conviction.

If upheld, the court's decision in the Dixon case would make it possible for any 18-year-old high school student to serve a mandatory 10-year prison sentence for having consensual sex with a classmate who is more than two years younger than him/her.

 

[manny78]

Outrageous. No proof of forcible anything.

COst to taxpayers: $400,000

Yup, it's around 50k$ a year for every inmate. Add to this the cost for the trial(s) (judges, prosecutors). Then people wonder why govt. have debts....lol All that cause a dumb girl got her cherry popped by a black snake...

 

[onerepmaximum]

Milo, that's not the response that I expected from you. Respect.

 

[jackangel]

it's nonsense. nonsense is nonsense, and there's little (if anything) to argue about, unless important details have been left out. either way, anabolicmd strikes again.

 

[hooch]

http://www.actforjustice.com/



It started in February 2003. Marcus had sex with a girl just shy of sixteen. She was a virgin. She is also white. Two days later, she accused Marcus of rape. Some speculate she made the accusation because she was afraid of her admittedly racist father. Regardless of the reasons, a jury of nine white jurors and three African Americans took only 15-20 minutes to determine, after hearing all the evidence, that Marcus did nothing wrong. The jury decided that the incident was no more than two teenagers having consensual sex. Based on the girl's own testimony, it is amazing they ever brought charges against Marcus. And yet, in the rural town of Rome, Georgia, where there is still some KKK rumblings, 9 white and 3 African American jurors found her story to have absolutely no basis in fact. So why is Marcus in prison? How is it possible that a high school boy who had consensual sex with a classmate is in prison for ten years?

Marcus was indicted under six different statutes under Georgia law. Four of the statutes include use of force. He was acquitted on all charges that included force. The jury was very specific. It was not even close. It is not that they had reasonable doubt...they had no doubt - the sex was consensual. The girl was not there against her will.

The prosecutor, in what can only be perceived as an act of complete disregard for the law, facts and justice in general, included a charge of "aggravated child molestation". Under Georgia law, if anyone (age of the perpetrator is irrelevant - he could be 15) has sex with a minor (under 16) that results in an "any injury", he is guilty of "child molestation". The jury deliberated for hours on this charge. In the end, technically, this situation fell under the purview of the statute as written. Marcus, admittedly had sex with the girl, she was under 16 (by three months), and, again admittedly, she was a virgin. It was the fact that she was a virgin that resulted in the Guilty verdict. You see, she sustained an "injury" as a result of intercourse. Technically, he is guilty.

The absurdity of charging a high school boy with child molestation for consensual sex with a high school girl is beyond description. In essence, every girl in Georgia that loses her virginity before 16 can charge the boy with aggravated child molestation. By definition, he is guilty, even if he is younger than the girl. Taken to further extremes, if a teenager gives another teen a hickey (technically an "injury"), he or she is guilty of aggravated child molestation the way this statute was drafted. Clearly, this was not the legislative intent. In fact, no high school boy or girl has EVER been charged with child molestation of a classmate less than three years his or her junior, until Marcus. Never. In the history of Georgia, Marcus is the only one in prison for consensual sex with a girl less than three years younger.


While the jury found him guilty, they had no idea of the consequences. They assumed Marcus would be released immediately. In the jurors own words, the look of horror across their faces when the judge sentenced Marcus to ten years minimum could be seen by everyone. They never knew the consequences. They could not fathom that a boy could go to jail for consensual sex, and certainly not for 10 years with no possibility of parole. And yet he has.

Why the prosecutor charged him under a statute that was clearly designed to apply to adult sexual predators of minors is beyond understanding. How the judge could allow the charge to stand is unconscionable. What their motives or rationalizations, one can only speculate. This is the kind of injustice that we Americans like to think is reserved for third world countries.

 

[GoldenDelicious]

this level of stupidity scares me

 

[milo hobgoblin]

...

hey I may be harsh on Black people sometime... but I STRONGLY feel its fucked up when they arent treated fairly by the courts. EVERY man deserves a fair chance. As hard as it may be for some of you to beleive... Im harsh on blacks because I think they are just as capoablke as whites and take the easy road too much of the time... blaming whites and the system for keeping them down.

But thats not the point at hand here.

If race really played a factor here... and like I said before... I wasnt in the courts so I cant say for sure ... but considering that sentence... its hard to believe it didnt. The kid got royally fucked.

after reading Hooches post... I am starting to think the kid got fucked by a bunch of rednecks because they didnt like the fact that he was black.

Its fucked up... and I feel sorry for the kid.

I have a strong feeling that all this media attention will fix it though... any reasonable person can see the whole gig is unfair.