Prep Player's Sex Sentence Draws Protests

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/21/athlete....l.ap/index.html

 

Court weighs teenager's sentence

 

Georgia case raises questions about mandatory minimum sentences

 

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Attorneys for a high school football player convicted of having consensual sex with a fellow student told the Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday that the teen's automatic 10-year sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

 

Prosecutors insisted the mandatory prison term was exactly what state law intended for Marcus Dixon, who was convicted of aggravated child molestation and statutory rape. Dixon was 18 at the time; the girl was 15.

 

Defense attorney David Balser said Dixon's sentence "so deviates from society's view of sexual conduct that it shocks the conscience." Unless the court overturns the case, any teenager who has sex could potentially face prison time, he said.

 

Prosecutor John McClellan defended Georgia law, which classifies Dixon's crime as one of the state's "seven deadly sins" that come with a minimum decade-long sentence.

 

"It is the job of the Legislature and not the courts to define crimes and their penalties," McClellan said.

 

The high court issued no immediate decision but was expected to rule in the next few months.

 

At the time of his arrest, Dixon was a senior football player with a 3.96 grade-point average and a scholarship to attend Vanderbilt University. Dixon's scholarship was later rescinded.

 

Dixon was enrolled in a home-economics class with the 15-year-old girl. He said he arranged to visit her in a trailer containing classrooms, where she was working as a student custodian. She told school counselors about the incident, and they contacted police.

 

Dozens of people packed the courtroom to hear Dixon's case, which has become controversial because he is black and the girl is white. Protesters have said Dixon would not have received such a long sentence if not for his race.

[Guest Choken One]

The REAL problem is the inter-racial nature of the relationship,

 

Naturally, a 18 year old Black man having a consensul relationship with a white female just 3 years under is immoral.

 

This is COMPLETE bullshit.

[Tully316 0]

At the bare minimum, it's still statutory rape. Way too much on the sentence, he would normally get probation up here in Ohio... but you know how dem dare Southeners love dem colored folks!!!

[Guest Choken One]

We REALLY need to adjust the Satutory rape bullshit...

 

18/15 or 18/anything not below 15 and is consensual shouldn't be in that equation.

[Ravenbomb 0]

Man, I hope they don't kill him, cause then she'd shoot the sherrif and start a long crime-spree that would end in the local rich guy looking for her loot and their ancestors having to dig in the desert because it never rained since they killed the guy.

[Guest Choken One]

WAIT! He had a scholorship to Vanderbilt?

 

Lock Him Up.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I wondered what happened to Ripper.

 

And how did this become a race issue?...

[Guest FrigidSoul]

I wondered what happened to Ripper.

He's busy in the Ghettopoly National Game Convention

[Guest Anglesault]

We REALLY need to adjust the Satutory rape bullshit...

 

18/15 or 18/anything not below 15 and is consensual shouldn't be in that equation.

18/17 is the one case when I show some sympathy, espcially if they it's just a matter two seniors with one having had a birthday and the other still waiting.

 

anything below that, and you're playing with fire.

[ant_7000 0]

I heard about this story before, I think its BULLSHIT!!!!!. Ten years for statutory rape? He should get probation at least. Well, if I ever visit Georgia I won't mess around with a white girl they might have a law against that too. Shit like this pisses me off, Dixon probably is going to have register as a sex offender.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

That'll teach you to stay away from our white girls.

 

 

*Shoots glare at Flyboy...*

[Guest Anglesault]

Ten Years is alot, but DAMNIT, THINK! (Directed to Dixon)

 

You live in To Kill a Mockingbird anyway, so it only makes logical sense that having consenual sex with a white girl isn't going to end well.

 

It's a shame, but that's the way things are down there

 

That's not my point though.

 

Obviously, she agreed to it, but she wasn't of age to do so.

 

You can't tell me he didn't know what he was doing was illegal.

 

If nothing else, he's a fucking idiot.

[2GOLD 0]

The sentence is mandatory so really, I think the REAL problem would be if he didn't get the 10 year sentence.

 

If they can find a white boy convicted of having sex with an underage white girl that didn't get 10 years, then yeah I'll call racism.

 

You know the law and whether you think it's stupid or not, you know it.

 

Also, she was working as a school custodian? What???

 

But Anglesault is right, he got set up and they just knocked him down. If she told school counselors then she either had this planned, or he said something that pissed her off.

 

You know what he SHOULD be glad of? That she didn't claim rape.

[lomasmoney 0]

come on this shit happened all the time in the south.... My grandmother was 15 when she had her first child and her husband was a shit load older than 18. So how in the hell can this now be considered unacceptable when the guy is only 18 years old and the girl is 15. Why is it suddenly that once someone is 16 or 17 or 18 that they are mature enough to handle a sexual relationship. It is all up the individual person and I say that 18/15 is the limit. Anything below that is off limits because a high school senior should not be having sex with an 8th grader. This is so much more about race than it is about the actual act committed. When will people learn that race doesn't really matter becasue scientifically we aren't different at all. Its stupid shit like this that makes me strongly dislike people, because we always seem to try and divide each other when we are all the fucking same

[NoCalMike 0]

10 years? WTF?

[EricMM 0]

I think most anyone would agree that he should not be having sex with a minor. They should have waited three months to go that far, it's certainly never a bad idea.

 

And yet.

 

No one I know would ever agree that a mandatory un-shortenable 10 years in the slammer is fair punishment for consentual sex with a girl three years one's junior.

 

The only two people who seem to hate this boy is the girl's father who says he deserves everything and more, and the prosecutor who was desperate to get statutory, and then if not that, anything.

 

This IS clearly racism.

[Guest Anglesault]

come on this shit happened all the time in the south

People run red lights all the time everywhere.

 

Should we just get rid of that whole traffic system and tell drivers "Good Luck."?

 

It is all up the individual person and I say that 18/15 is the limit

 

Well, if you say so.

 

::watches law change::

 

Anything below that is off limits because a high school senior should not be having sex with an 8th grader

 

What about people who were 14 in the beginning of high school? (Like me.) Where do they fit into this formula? They have the rank you have arbitrarily chosen (Freshman in high school) but not the age.

 

Or the REALLY dumb 15 year old seventh graders?

[NoCalMike 0]

When I was in highschool most of the Seniors would never hesitate to bang a freshman chick if she was good looking. No one really paid attention to ages. I mean at least this was another student, not some loser that graduated and was lurking around the school looking for his prey. It seems like this is racially motivated to me at least somewhat.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

When I was in highschool most of the Seniors would never hesitate to bang a freshman chick if she was good looking. No one really paid attention to ages. I mean at least this was another student, not some loser that graduated and was lurking around the school looking for his prey. It seems like this is racially motivated to me at least somewhat.

There were one or two freshmen chicks at my school that I was really attracted to, but the age difference for that time in our lives was just too much...

[Guest Ghettoman]

Has anyone mentioned the only reason those charges were even brought against him was because they couldn't convict him of raping this girl?

 

They wanted to take him down, and did, the appalling part is the smug look on the prosecutions face admitting that there was no case for molestation and because of that the statutory rape thing is bullshit, but he went ahead with it anyway.

 

Saw the special on Real Sports I'm pretty sure, it's complete bullshit.

[Guest Goodear]

I heard about this story before, I think its BULLSHIT!!!!!. Ten years for statutory rape? He should get probation at least.

Psst, you mean 'at most'. I don't know why this bothered me, but it did.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

It is the same in this country. Any adult that has sex with a minor, consented or not, and gets found out will get slapped with a sexual assualt charge. It is considered no different than rape in Canada for an adult to sleep with a minor.