The law does not distinuish between the minor who is 18 and drunk and the minor who is 20years and 11months and drunk. Both are in violation of the law.
I can tell you are another of the law worshipers. I know it is a hard thing to ask in this age, but is it too hard for our legal system to use good reason and critical judgment? 10 years for a minor having oral sex with another minor only 2 years younger! 10 years! The villain in this case isn't the 17 year (he was just stupid). It is the legal system that threw his life away. And it is the people who worship that legal system and excuse any outcome as long as it follows "the rule of law."
Ideally, the judge would have let the ruling stand, the 17 year old would have been pardoned by the governor, and the law would have been fixed by the state legislature to include a Romeo and Juliet clause.
What better alternative is there? The law is there for all to see and know. Do you seriously advocate for a system that is case-by-case, in which no person will or can know whether or not he will be (or how he will be) punished for an action?
The moral of this story is that if you have group sex with a fifteen year-old, if you have a good PR machine, you can get off with a slap on the wrist.
Do you think ages of consent should be judicially abolished? Apparently, the Georgia legislature thought that it would be a good idea to prevent older, more mature people from coercing younger, more naive people, into to consenting to sexual acts. Why should the judge--acting on his own--overturn the will of the people of the state of Georgia, who spoke through their legislature?
Age of consent laws must be enforced or abandoned.
The Sex Positive agenda has already got our schools pushing teen sexual activity. They oppose abstinence not because it doesn’t work, but because they see sexual pleasure as a birthright to be enjoyed by everyone at every age.
If you believe that “arbitrary” legal (as in established law) barriers between two “consenting” partners are worth removing, then fight it in the legislature, not the bench.
Same as the laws against homosexuality should’ve been repealed. In Congress, not court rooms.
I’m sure when the Fairness Doctrine becomes law again, these people who think no law can be wrong won’t complain.