If I was on the jury I would not have convicted him since the person that he was chatting with was not a minor. I also would not have convicted him on a more fundamental basis, that what he did amounts to a thought crime and I can see no reason why any government has the authority to criminalize thoughts (it should also be noted that in this case we’re not talking about a prepubescent child but actually what was considered a young woman at one time and in some States can still get married).
This whole protect the children from perverts thing has swung way too far to one side and should be rethought. There needs to be a redefinition of what a minor is in my opinion for the purposes of criminalizing these types of things. The punishment is way out of line for the “crime”. We should be spending our resources on the people that are doing the real damage to children like actual child molesters not some 18 year old kid that got tagged with statutory rape for doing his 15 year old girl friend.
I would draw the line at puberty (~13) since once past that there are a lot of women that you just can’t tell (for example Tracy Lords started her porn career at 14 and millions of men and women couldn’t tell that she was 14) and even if you could these women know what they are doing most of the time, especially when we are talking about an internet chat where there can be no physical intimidation and the “minor” can walk away anytime they like. We have way too many laws that criminalize way to many things, we need less government not more nanny state garbage.
It’s not about ‘thought’ it’s about intent. His intentions were to break the law. If you don’t think we should prosecute someone for criminal intent then to be consistent you don’t think we should prosecute terrorists who intend to kill simply because they were caught before they did.
Come around my 14 year-old daughter with that attitude, and you’ll probably not like the consequences.
More that just “chatting” which is all that the Florida Republican even encroached upon. Scott Ritter masturbated (exposed himself) on cam.
More that just “chatting” which is all that the Florida Republican even encroached upon. Scott Ritter masturbated (exposed himself) on cam.