Posted on 06/28/2002 8:06:31 AM PDT by gdani
Clayton teen's case could overturn fornication law
By BILL RANKIN
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
June 28, 2002
The 16-year-old Fayette County girl placed a stool in front of her bedroom door to keep anyone from barging in on her and her boyfriend.
They knew they were being naughty. They never imagined they were breaking the law.
They were caught in the act last September when the girl's mother burst into the room. The girl had already had troubles with the law. She was old enough under Georgia law to have consensual sex, but her probation officer, after learning of the tryst, pressed charges under the state's fornication statute.
Both teenagers were found guilty in Fayette Juvenile Court. The girl, identified in court papers as J.D., was sent to boot camp. The Clayton County boy, identified as J.M., also 16, was ordered to pay a fine and write an essay.
The boy's lawyer and the American Civil Liberties Union are now appealing his case to the Georgia Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn the state's fornication statute. Under Georgia law, any person, no matter how old, can be found guilty of a misdemeanor when he or she has sexual intercourse with another person outside wedlock.
Conviction carries a sentence of up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
"The case stands for the rights of all Georgia citizens to their privacy, their right to engage in private sexual relationships they care about and not have interference from the government," said Catherine Sanderson, a Peachtree City lawyer representing the boy.
"Unless you're married, you have to be celibate under the law," Sanderson added. "The state has no business making that law or enforcing it."
She noted that the teenagers' parents did not ask police to press charges.
Most states have repealed or overturned their fornication statutes, and in 1998, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the state's sodomy law on privacy grounds.
"We cannot think of any other activity that reasonable persons would rank as more private and more deserving of protection from governmental interference than consensual, private, adult sexual activity," Justice Robert Benham wrote for the court in the 6-1 decision. That decision overturned a sodomy conviction against Anthony Powell of Norcross.
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said Thursday that "given the reasoning of the Georgia Supreme Court in the Powell case, it wouldn't surprise me to see them latch onto this one."
Porter, however, added that the "get-the-government-out-of-the-bedroom rhetoric used by the ACLU is nice to hear, but it's not the practical use this statute is put to." Most often, he said, the fornication statute is used to prosecute public sexual conduct.
"I don't think the government -- and I know I don't -- has any intent [of] going into the bedroom of consenting adults," he said. "But the state does have a legitimate interest in trying to control the sexual activity of juveniles."
Fayette County District Attorney Bill McBroom, whose office prosecuted the teens, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Gerry Weber, the ACLU's legal director in Atlanta, said the court should rule in the teenager's favor because they were having sex in a private bedroom -- not a public place.
"This is a completely antiquated law that intrudes upon the privacy of many Georgia citizens' bedrooms," he said, pointing out that the U.S. census counted about 145,000 unmarried couples in Georgia. "It's a huge number of people who are daily violating a statute that subjects them to up to 12 months in jail. It's just crazy."
In Maryland, the law is 16, no questions asked. But if your 14 or 15, you can only have relations with others less than 4 years older than you. Tell me who thought up that one.
Sounds like a great line of reasoning with which the child welfare services can take more children away from their parents and into state custody. "Your teenager hasn't been completely chaste? You want to deal with it yourself or with the help of your church? Ridiculous! The state knows how to handle these things; we have experts. We'll be taking your child now."
I'd like to read the essay.
"How I Spent My Summer Vacation"
Some help? For what, exactly: behaving in the way typical, red-blooded teens have behaved since the dawn of mankind?
I agree with you, but why would you assume the law's going to take care of any pregnancy of hers?
Why do you assume that all sex, even that between minors, means that the result will be pregnancy?
Some help in criminalizing every aspect of normal childhood and teen behaviour. Pee in a cup, don't play tag, always wear a helmet and never, ever, question authority- perfect formula to get them used to becoming obedient drones when they grow up.
They were caught in the act last September when the girl's mother burst into the room.
She noted that the teenagers' parents did not ask police to press charges.
What happened between getting caught by mom and the police getting involved? Did the girl's mother call the police?
Sounds like somehow her probation office found out. And then decided there was some role for law enforcement.
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