[Alex]
Earlier today I posted about the 17 year old Georgia boy imprisoned for ten years for permitting a 15 year old girl to perform what I believe the newspapers coyly call "a sex act".
Several readers email to say that the case is a little more sordid than the bare facts suggest. The girl performed oral sex on as many as six teenage boys. Furthermore the evening’s entertainment was videotaped. So far so unseemly.
But, nonetheless, there’s little suggestion that the girl did not consent. On the contrary she was a willing participant and testified to that effect – no matter how ashamed or hurt she may have felt afterwards.
Eugene Volokh also emails to correct me: the presiding judge in the appeal case is a "she" not a "he" and "her argument isn’t quite that ‘[s]he had to lock the boy up,’ but rather that there was no basis for reversing the trial court’s decision – itself commanded by the legislature – to lock the boy up."
This Atlanta Magazine article has more details on the case.
Money, ahem, quote:
"…in Georgia, sex, including oral sex, with anyone under the age of 16 can be classified as aggravated child molestation‚Äîeven if it occurs between two teens less than three years apart in age, as in the instance of 17-year-old Genarlow and 15-year-old Tracy.
In fact, under Georgia law, the penalty is actually more severe for a person found guilty of engaging in oral sex with a minor than for having intercourse (which is classified as misdemeanor statutory rape), even if the perpetrator is just a few years older than the minor."
To repeat: it’s entirely possible to disapprove of this boy’s actions. Indeed, one might find them reprehensible. But does this warrant ten years in prison and a lifetime on a sex offenders’ register?
UPDATE: Yes, as several readers ask me to make clear, this story is indeed from the state of Georgia, not the former Soviet Republic.
The Dish 