The Georgia Supreme Court just upheld this. The sentence strikes me as unduly harsh even on its own terms, but it seems especially unjustifiable given that:
- The age of consent in Georgia is 16.
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assistant district attorney driven to suicide:
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Pedophileophobia.com A site to combat the ever growing hysteria over pedophilia "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke |
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Horror Stories San Fernando, California 1996 Teacher loses teaching credential, serves six months in jail, and must register life-long as a sex offender for a pat on a knee, shaking a student's hand, and apparently saying "I don't have sex because my mommy will spank me." First year middle school art teacher is surrounded by female students at his desk who what him to touch their legs for one-dollar. He obliges one, with a small pat with the back of his hand and gives her the dollar. She then offers to show him her stomach for five-dollars, but teacher refuses. Teacher gets three-months jail time for this (C.P.C. 647.6 Child Annoy and Molest). Student goes bragging that she got a dollar out of the teacher, so later another female student comes into the classroom demanding a dollar. After much nagging, the teacher offers the dollar, but plays "keep-away" and shakes the hand of the student twice before giving the dollar. Teacher gets three more months jail time for this (C.P.C. 647.6 Child Annoy and Molest). Another female student asks teacher "Have you ever had sex in water?" Teacher replies: "No, I don't have sex because my mother would spank me." Teacher gets three more months jail time for this, though teacher never touched this student (C.P.C. 647.6 Child Annoy and Molest). Middle school teacher served 6 months of his total 9 month sentence, 3 months being dropped due to good behavior. Teacher permanently lost his teaching credentials and had to leave the country to find employment after going to college 22 years part-time to attain a B.A., M.A. and California State Teaching Credentials. The California State Teaching Code prohibits sex offenders from teaching at the jr. college or university level, thus effectively nullifying teacher's Master's degree as well as his teaching credentials. Students' parents sue school district on behalf of students and receive a settlement for actions that the students themselves provoked and which were extremely minor in nature and utterly harmless. Φ KANSAS STATE–Dismissed C Tyler Hughes from the men’s basketball team after it became known that his name appears in a registered sex offender database. What does the right to play basketball have to do with being on a sex offender database? Φ Fire Marshal loses his retirement for sex crimes? Where's the connection? If someone puts in the time to "earn" his retirement then he deserves it no matter what! Naturally if one's crime constitutes dereliction of duty such as congressmen who take bribes while in office, that's a different matter. Here, is there is no real connection between the job and the crime, other than the man was driving a county vehicle and wearing his uniform during the attempted crime, which when one reads the details of the case is an excuse rather than a reason. Having 18 years of work nullified due to a non-work related crime is easily seen from details of the case to be the personal vendetta of Commissioner Ronda Storms rather than deserved consequences. "TAMPA -- The Hillsborough County Commission voted Wednesday to deny retirement benefits to employees who commit sex crimes involving minors while on the job, the latest response to the embarrassing case of former county Fire Marshal Donald Goff. Florida Retirement Systems took steps Tuesday to eliminate Goff's pension after Commissioner Ronda Storms learned he had been sentenced to 37 months in prison for sex crimes. Goff, whose work computer contained pornographic links, entered chat rooms for 9- to 15-year-olds on his home computer. He also used his county car to pursue a contact that turned out to be an FBI agent posing as a 14-year-old. Goff may also have to return the pension money he's received since retiring last fall at a rate of $3,148.75 a month." Goff is no angel (please read the following for more information about this case), but pension money for 18 years of service is money that has been earned like the salary that has already been paid, and no one can justly deny one what they have already earned unless of course the crime had some direct impact upon his work performance. http://www.sptimes.com/2004/06/29/news_pf/Hillsborough/Fire_marshal_faced_tr.shtml http://portland.citysearch.com/profile/8478451/?brand=smx_yp-nc Φ Golden - An Arvada woman who told police she wanted to be a "cool mom" was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for plying teenage boys with alcohol and drugs and having sex with them. Silvia Johnson, 41, wept through parts of her three-hour sentencing, including when she told District Judge Peter Weir that she was sorry. "I know I hurt so many people, not just the boys," she said. Johnson told Weir that she has learned her lesson and realizes she has hurt her family, the victims' families and the community, as well as the teenage boys she abused and assaulted. "I take full responsibility for what I have done," she said. What Silvia Johnson did was wrong, but 30 years! Nobody gets 30 years for doing anything except for killing someone, and she gets 30 years for giving a bunch of boys bragging rights who were all willing participants. There's one "0" too many here. Give her 3 years and a heavy dose of counseling to deal with her loneliness. Φ BAKERSFIELD, California (AP) -- John Stoll has been imprisoned for 20 years based solely on the testimony of six children who claimed he molested them. Most of those witnesses, now adults, have come forward to say they lied. Stoll's case was part of a wave of hysteria concerning child molestations that swept the nation in the 1980s and led to the arrest of hundreds of people, including dozens in Bakersfield. Many later had their convictions overturned for reasons including prosecutorial misconduct and coercive interview techniques now believed to produce false statements from children. So here is our illustrious legal system at work - imprisoning people for 20 years for crimes they did not commit. This is the problem with non-violent and often simply victimless crimes, since there is no physical damage any child can just lie his or her heart out and no one can really know if what they say actually occurred or not. Φ The following has to be one of the most idiotic abuses of sex laws yet. It is just unbelievable. The older boy and younger girl were only two years apart in age and the act was completely consensual. You have to read this to believe it. They even amended the law so such an act now would be a misdemeanor, but for some reason it is not retroactive. What is God's name is wrong with our legal system? The Georgia Supreme Court just upheld this. The sentence strikes me as unduly harsh even on its own terms, but it seems especially unjustifiable given that:
Φ assistant district attorney driven to suicide: NBC settles lawsuit over man's suicideNEW YORK (Reuters) - Television network NBC has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a man who killed himself when the crew of TV show "To Catch a Predator" showed up at his home to film his arrest, according to court papers. The $100 million lawsuit was brought against NBC by the family of Louis W. Conradt Jr., an assistant district attorney in Rockwall County, Texas, who shot himself as he was about to be arrested by police for attempting to solicit a minor over the Internet. Accompanying the police were a crew from the NBC show "To Catch a Predator," who were filming the arrest for a segment to be broadcast later, court papers show. A representative from NBC, a division of General Electric Co, was not immediately available to comment on the terms of the settlement. The agreement was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The premise of "To Catch a Predator" is that someone poses as an underage girl in an Internet chat room and then lures men who want to meet them to a house. Instead of finding the girl, they are confronted by the TV show's host and a camera crew. In Conradt's case, local police decided to arrest him at his home after he failed to show up at the prearranged house. Conradt took his own life as the police and camera crews entered his home. Conradt's sister sued NBC Universal, alleging it is responsible for her brother's death and the harm to his reputation and name, according to court papers. (Reporting by Paul Thomasch and Robert MacMillan; Editing by Andre Grenon)
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