What an awful mess!

[pyratas]

Just further proof how backwards the Bible Belt can be (I suppose this could happen anywhere in the US though....)

A 17 year male gets 10 YEARS IN PRISON for having oral sex with a 15 year old and sex with another 17 year old --

If that's not shocking enough, the DA of Atlanta has released at least 35 copies of the video without blurring out the young ladies faces.

Can you say distribution of CP?

It gets even better (well, worse)-- "The law Wilson was convicted of breaking made consensual oral sex between teens a felony. It has since been changed by the Georgia Legislature. But the state's courts have held that the new law cannot be applied retroactively."

Who's the real criminal here? A teen having sex with teens within appropriate age range, or a District Attorney distributing the video unedited?

Here's the link:

DA Releases Video

[balls_deep]

a judge has thrown out his conviction but the DA is tying it up and he is still in jail.

[mynameisjim]

That is the same prosecutor who argued (and won) to keep the young man in jail during his appeal, which is crazy in this case.

They want to show that he is the not clean cut teenager the defense wants to portray but the problem is, is if you release a sex tape of ANYBODY it makes them look bad.

A huge part of this is because the defendant is black and poor. This would NEVER happen to a white suburban kid. There was a story a while back in my area about a group of white kids who had sex with a unconscious girl at a party and videotaped it. The girl had the words "whore" and "slut" written on her body with markers. None of the kids received any jail time.

[porn punk]

Actually, Jim. 5 suburban white kids were just falsely accused of raping a black girl, 5 suburban rich white kids, and now the DA is up on charges or at least should be getting disbarred.

It was pretty famous about some Lacrosse Players.

Not to weaken your point because I hear where your coming from, but at this particular time it was "get white boy week".

One thing sort of feeds off the other though so in a sense it's strengthening your point

[sassygirl]

the legal system sure is rotten...

[theviking]

Originally posted by sassygirl
the legal system sure is rotten...

Money talks...bullshit walks!

[mynameisjim]

Originally posted by porn punk
Actually, Jim. 5 suburban white kids were just falsely accused of raping a black girl, 5 suburban rich white kids, and now the DA is up on charges or at least should be getting disbarred.

It was pretty famous about some Lacrosse Players.

Not to weaken your point because I hear where your coming from, but at this particular time it was "get white boy week".

One thing sort of feeds off the other though so in a sense it's strengthening your point

If it was the other way around and 5 black guys were accused of raping a wealthy, white, college girl do you think it would of ended up the same way???? I'm not saying white or wealthy people are never falsely accused. But things turn out much better for them than if they were poor or a minority, or god forbid, both.

The families of those Lacrosse players were able to hire a great legal team who could also handle the press and was able to systematically dismantle the case before it even went to trial and in the process ruin the prosecutor who brought the case in the first place.

Take a look into the Innocence Project. Because of movies and such the public has the impression that criminals are always getting off on "technicalities" or because the arresting cop misread the Miranda rights or something. This is complete bullshit because in reality, everyday in big city courthouses rape and murder trials are held that barely last more than 90 minutes because the defense simply has no resources to put up an argument. It's a real shame and believe it or not, the amount of innocent people in prison is much higher than people think.

[theviking]

Originally posted by mynameisjim
If it was the other way around and 5 black guys were accused of raping a wealthy, white, college girl do you think it would of ended up the same way???? I'm not saying white or wealthy people are never falsely accused. But things turn out much better for them than if they were poor or a minority, or god forbid, both.

The families of those Lacrosse players were able to hire a great legal team who could also handle the press and was able to systematically dismantle the case before it even went to trial and in the process ruin the prosecutor who brought the case in the first place.

Take a look into the Innocence Project. Because of movies and such the public has the impression that criminals are always getting off on "technicalities" or because the arresting cop misread the Miranda rights or something. This is complete bullshit because in reality, everyday in big city courthouses rape and murder trials are held that barely last more than 90 minutes because the defense simply has no resources to put up an argument. It's a real shame and believe it or not, the amount of innocent people in prison is much higher than people think.

as said... money... and bullshit

[grimfang]

This all just shows some of the problems involved with prosecuting a case like this. The tape is the evidence that will prove innocence or guilt. In order for the case to move forward, certain people need to view the tape... the DA, the Prosecutor and his legal team, the Judge, the Defense attourneys and thier legal teams, the arresting officers, and eventually the jury. In order to prove the age and identity of the people viewed on the tape, their faces must not be obscured in these copies of the tape... at some point the judge, jury, and all lawyers involved need to see the faces of the people on the tape. Clearly the text of the law never took a situation like this into account. The spirit of the law needs to be kept in mind, rather than the specific wording. In order to punish the guilty, the tape must be viewed in an unedited form.
I am not going to debate the morals of the case itself... The age of the people involved and the acts conducted on the tape.. thats a whole seperate topic as to whether or not it should be considered a crime at all. Under the current laws, it was a crime and must be prosecuted as one.
In my mind, the bigger issue is this: How fucking stupid is this guy to tape the whole thing, then let the tape get out of his possession????

[balls_deep]

I am glad we can still buy justice in America

[porn punk]

Originally posted by mynameisjim
If it was the other way around and 5 black guys were accused of raping a wealthy, white, college girl do you think it would of ended up the same way???? I'm not saying white or wealthy people are never falsely accused. But things turn out much better for them than if they were poor or a minority, or god forbid, both.

The families of those Lacrosse players were able to hire a great legal team who could also handle the press and was able to systematically dismantle the case before it even went to trial and in the process ruin the prosecutor who brought the case in the first place.

Take a look into the Innocence Project. Because of movies and such the public has the impression that criminals are always getting off on "technicalities" or because the arresting cop misread the Miranda rights or something. This is complete bullshit because in reality, everyday in big city courthouses rape and murder trials are held that barely last more than 90 minutes because the defense simply has no resources to put up an argument. It's a real shame and believe it or not, the amount of innocent people in prison is much higher than people think.

Hey, I'm absolutely on your side, but I think it's a class thing more than a race thing and I think the race thing is exploited by the black leaders. Not that i don't believe that racism is a real issue, just that I think a rich black man can can get off just as easy as a rich white man. There's just not as many rich black men as rich white men who commit crimes (when I say rich, I mean OJ rich and Micheal Jackson rich).

Anyway, just to back up what you're getting at. I got in trouble once and ended up doing about 18 months Federal and the first thing my lawyer told me "you have two things going for you, you're white and your name doesn't end in a vowel." so he's in the system and understands it better than me, but I've been in it and my point of view is different.

As Balls inferred, this justice system (American) is all about money. I assume it's the same everywhere, but wouldn't know. I know Roman Polanski seems to be doing okay in France, but he's white and a director and had to flee the country. Oh, yeah and rich - Go figure

Oh yeah, I forgot to say I live in LA to so that might have something to do with my perspective, but still...

[mynameisjim]

Porn Punk, I agree. I wasn't really arguing, just refining my point a bit so I hope I didn't give the wrong impression.

Wealth and class certainly trump race in this case. And yes, you are right the black leaders exploit these issues and put more people off by doing so their effect is counterproductive in most cases.

All I know is I'm white, so now I just need to get wealthy and I can start settling all my disputes with a chainsaw without any fear of legal retribution.

[porn punk]

Originally posted by mynameisjim
Porn Punk, I agree. I wasn't really arguing, just refining my point a bit so I hope I didn't give the wrong impression.

Wealth and class certainly trump race in this case. And yes, you are right the black leaders exploit these issues and put more people off by doing so their effect is counterproductive in most cases.

All I know is I'm white, so now I just need to get wealthy and I can start settling all my disputes with a chainsaw without any fear of legal retribution.

Absolutely! And if you get rich enough, you can hire me and I'll use the chainsaw for you, unless of course you're one of those hands on persons that have to do things yourself