Justice finally served for Georgia teen
 

what if in 2007 he were 18 and the girl was 15. would that be a crime?

You know, a former client of mine went down on a pair of felonies. It was on charges that you might not think would be treated as seriously as they are. He had done something stupid, but was certain that he could beat it and certainly didn't want to be a convicted felon. We parted company over this difference of opinion.

I caught up to the lawyer who represented him at trial who then shared with me that the guy have ultimately been offered misdemeanors and passed them up. When I heard that, all the sympathy I had for him evaporated. He did in fact break the law.

So when I read this in the linked article:

"Prosecutors offered him deals, but he and his attorneys rejected them, saying anything that leaves a record for him as a registered sex offender is unfair."

some of my sympathy went away. My guess is that there was a parent there in the back ground who was full of righteous indignation throughout the process who encouraged this young man to stand his ground and never thought for a moment about the fact that the law had been broken.

None of that is a defense of what the judge did here, which was absurd. But take it from me first hand that a lot of people end up victims, last of all, of their own stupidity and misplaced righteous indignation.

Being a sex offender is a big deal these days. There are entire cities you can't live in.

Am I the only one that snickered at his attoney's name?

I just skimmed the article. Did it mention whether the victim was white or black?

This whole sentence killed me:

The quick release might not be forthcoming, due to a possible gag order.

Cases like these discredit the sex offender list. It makes you wonder how many of these supposed scum bags are only listed as sex offenders because they had a random porn pop-up on their computer when children were around, because they got a BJ in high school and her dad found out, or because they got caught streaking across the quad.