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A Southern Legal Lynching is Almost Lethal
Newsday.com, from the LA Times ^ | 1/23/2004 | Martin Wright Edelman

Posted on 01/23/2004 5:36:35 AM PST by Dudoight

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpede233638311jan23,0,3528514.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

There is a young man in Georgia who almost beat the odds. An African-American born to a 15-year-old, drug-addicted mother and an absent father, Marcus Dixon nonetheless went on to become an honor student and all-state football star. His football skills, 3.96 grade-point average and 1,200 score on his SAT won him a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University.

Dixon, 19, was supposed to enter Vanderbilt last fall. Instead, he is serving a 10-year prison sentence with no chance of parole for having consensual sex when he was 18 years old with a white girl who was three months shy of 16. He is the only person in Georgia history this close in age to his victim to be convicted of "aggravated child molestation," a charge that was intended to protect children from predatory adults, not imprison teenagers for having sex with other teenagers.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...


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1 posted on 01/23/2004 5:36:35 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
If the facts are as reported, this seems hardly fair.
2 posted on 01/23/2004 5:37:22 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
And the problem is ...?
3 posted on 01/23/2004 5:38:29 AM PST by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsënspåånkængrüppen ØberKømmååndø (EMØØK))
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To: BlueLancer
With kids all over the US having sex as young as Junior High, we sure need to put a lot more 18 year olds in prison. Would a white senior teen of 18, in Ohio, go to prison for the same thing?
4 posted on 01/23/2004 5:41:11 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
The jury thought they were sending him home,probation.
5 posted on 01/23/2004 5:41:19 AM PST by MEG33
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To: MEG33
Yeah, but......he got 10 years.
6 posted on 01/23/2004 5:43:42 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
Then, in February 2003, Dixon had sex with a girl who was almost 16, a virgin. Two days later, she accused him of rape. Investigators didn't give either of them a lie detector test or look for the condom Dixon said he used and threw away.

"I didn't believe him," the investigator explained.

There is a little more to the story but the press screams racism. I wonder what they would be screaming if an 18 year old WHITE MAN was accused by a 15 year old black girl of rape?

7 posted on 01/23/2004 5:43:45 AM PST by 2banana
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To: Dudoight
Other reports say he was at first charged with rape, and plead it down. The girl reported the sex act to school administration the tends to make me believe it wasnt all that consential , also there are other stories of this kid and previous sex acts with girls in school. I wasnt on the jury, I have to assume there were some black folks on the jury that found him guilty , I dont know. The real story here is not as simple as a poor black kid being picked on in Ga. One side makes him to be a textbook case of a poor black kid being legally lynched , the other side says maybe he has a Clintonian problem with his penis, Somewhere in the middle there is probably the truth.
8 posted on 01/23/2004 5:43:56 AM PST by sgtbono2002 (I aint wrong, I aint sorry , and I am probably going to do it again.)
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To: 2banana
How can a judge to this if the kid was aquitted? Why even have a trial? Enlighten me as to the 'more' of the story.
9 posted on 01/23/2004 5:46:35 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
You do the crime, you do the time.
10 posted on 01/23/2004 5:46:38 AM PST by Viet Vet in Augusta GA
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To: Dudoight
"Would a white senior teen of 18, in Ohio, go to prison for the same thing?"

I would only hope that the system would do so. You said it yourself, with kids all over the US having sex as young as junior high, at least the laws that are written should be enforced. His age is irrelevant; that of the girl is.

11 posted on 01/23/2004 5:47:39 AM PST by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsënspåånkængrüppen ØberKømmååndø (EMØØK))
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To: Dudoight
correction: how can a judge DO this? This judge will most certainly NOT be tapped for a Supreme Court slot.
12 posted on 01/23/2004 5:48:50 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
"How can a judge to this if the kid was aquitted?"

He was acquitted of rape. He was found guilty of the lesser-included offense of what is basically statutory rape ("aggravated child molestation"). The sentence is the result of that conviction.

13 posted on 01/23/2004 5:49:57 AM PST by BlueLancer (Der Elite Møøsënspåånkængrüppen ØberKømmååndø (EMØØK))
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To: BlueLancer
Without 'evidence', it sounds like he said-she said. The jury aquitted. It just doesn't sound right. I don't know the law, if a jury's verdict is NOT relevant....why have one.
14 posted on 01/23/2004 5:51:31 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
Enlighten me as to the 'more' of the story.

Well, I dunno, let me take some guesses...

1. A minor girl accuses a man of rape to the police
2. The police investigate and find evidence
3. The DA reviews the evidence and finds there is enough of it to go to a grand jury
4. A grand jury find there is enough evidence to warrant a trail
5. The DA believes it is worth his time and effort to pursue the matter in court

It would be interesting if the article had published what some of the evidence was but instead focused on the general stats of the black prision population...

And would the press be even having this debate if the races were reversed?

15 posted on 01/23/2004 5:54:14 AM PST by 2banana
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To: BlueLancer
Well, that explains it. But, personally, I hope the kid gets off on appeal.

"This statute had never before been used to prosecute consensual sex between teens with less than a three-year age difference. A majority of states have passed "Romeo and Juliet" statutes - which deal with teen sex when both partners are close in age - for exactly these types of cases. Later, several jurors said they thought the charge was minor and were shocked when the judge announced the mandatory 10-year sentence."
16 posted on 01/23/2004 5:55:21 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
One lesson that should be learned by his peers (but won't be):

Adults should not have sex with 15-year-olds.

I know that's a real radical concept that will seem unacceptably draconian, but a certain degree of legal (and other) trouble can be avoided by following this little rule.

17 posted on 01/23/2004 5:55:35 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (I'm having an apotheosis of freaking desuetude)
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To: MEG33
The jury thought they were sending him home,probation.

This case shows why we need a Fully Informed Jury Amendment.

It's time to break the cabal of the lawyer scum, including the pompous ass judges (who are just another kind of lawyer filth turned petty tyrant.)

Let juries judge the law as well as the facts.

-ccm

18 posted on 01/23/2004 5:56:01 AM PST by ccmay
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To: 2banana
"And would the press be even having this debate if the races were reversed?"

Yes, a mean old white master rapeing a poor black girl? If they were both white or both black, maybe it would be ignored.
19 posted on 01/23/2004 5:57:28 AM PST by Dudoight
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To: Dudoight
Would a white senior teen of 18, in Ohio, go to prison for the same thing?

It would depend on Ohio law. Many states provide an exception to statutory rape where the defendant and the complainant are close in same -- in some states it is a two year age difference and in other states it is a three year age difference.

20 posted on 01/23/2004 6:00:20 AM PST by writmeister
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