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Monday, July 16, 2007
Law - "New laws take 'Romeo' into account"
John Gramlich of Stateline.org reports today:
Lawmakers across the country are doling out tougher punishments for sex offenders – from satellite tracking to the death penalty – but a handful of states are starting to ease up on penalties in cases of youths arrested for sex.See also this July 8th ILB entry.Laws enacted this year in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana and Texas, and a bill waiting for the governor’s approval in Illinois, try to draw clearer distinctions between sexual predators and adolescents who pose less of a risk, such as those caught in so-called “Romeo and Juliet” relationships. Even when adolescents are only a few years apart, consensual sexual encounters can lead to prosecution.
The case in Georgia of former high school football star Genarlow Wilson, who is serving a mandatory 10-year sentence after receiving consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old girl when he was 17, has attracted national attention, sparked bitter debate in the Legislature and will be decided later this year by the state Supreme Court. Even the author of the statute used against Wilson says the sentence is a miscarriage of justice and wasn’t the intent of the law.
The new state policies take different approaches but share a goal of preventing low-risk adolescents from facing the same penalties as serious predators. Lawmakers who support the laws emphasize that the measures are not “soft” on crime but are designed to eliminate unintended consequences – such as lifetime inclusion on sex-offender registries for young people convicted of less-serious infractions. * * *
In Indiana, a change in the law decriminalizes consensual sex between adolescents if they are found by a court to be in a “dating relationship” with an age difference of four years or less. Under the new policy, courts also will have discretion to determine whether violators should be included in the state’s sex offender registry.
“A teenager could have a lifetime of hell because of a misplaced tag (as a sex offender). But, on the other hand, society could have a hellish situation if we don’t identify the right people,” Indiana state Rep. Ralph Foley (R), who co-authored his state’s bill, told Stateline.org. “We tried to look at both.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 16, 2007 06:58 AM
Posted to General Law Related | Indiana Law