Lawmakers across the country are doling out tougher punishments for sex offenders - from satellite tracking to the death penalty - but a handful of states are starting to ease up on penalties in cases of youths arrested for sex. Laws enacted this year in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana and Texas, and a bill waiting for the governor's approval in Illinois, try to draw clearer distinctions between sexual predators and adolescents who pose less of a risk, such as those caught in the so-called "Romeo and Juliet" relationships. Even when adolescents are only a few years apart, consensual sexual encounters can lead to prosecution. The case in Georgia of former high school football star Genarlow Wilson, who is serving a mandatory 10-year sentence after receiving consensual oral sex from a 15 year old girl when he was 17, has attracted national attention, sparked bitter debate in the Legislature and will be decided later this year by the state Supreme Court. Even the author of the statute used against Wilson says the sentence is a miscarriage of justice and wasn't the intent of the law. The new laws come amid an ongoing crackdown on sex offenders. States approved scores of measures targeting sex offenders in 2006, restricting where they can live, authorizing Global Positioning System satellites to track where they go and - in Oklahoma and South Carolina - allowing the death penalty for some sex crimes.
Connecticut lawmakers agreed to a compromise that widens the age gap between consenting sexual partners from two years to three, in an attempt to cut down on the number of "Romeo and Juliet" romances prosecuted. The original legislation called for a four-year gap.
Florida's new policy allows those involved in consensual sexual encounters - with no more than four years between them - to petition to have their names removed from the state and national sex offender registries. The Illinois bill now sitting on Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich's desk also addresses registries, it would ensure that juvenile sex offenders aren't added to the state's adult registry, effectively reversing a 2005 state law.
In Indiana, a change in the law decriminalizes consensual sex between adolescents if they are found by a court to be in a "dating relationship" with an age difference of four years or less. Under the new policy, courts also will have discretion to determine whether violators should be included in the state's sex offender registry.
Texas, meanwhile, overhauled a risk-assessment system that allowed some juvenile offenders, including those having consensual sex with a younger partner, to received a higher risk rating than many serious predators. Based on factors including age and relationship to the victim, the system often over-penalized the young and under-penalized those abusing member so their own family. The new system uses revised standards, such as psychological tests, to make assessments.
On October 26, 2007, Wilson was freed by Georgia's highest court, which ruled that his sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. His sentence was denounced even by members of the jury that convicted him. In its 4-3 decision, the Georgia Supreme Court noted that the change in the law represented "a seismic shift in the legislature's view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants." The justices also said Wilson's sentence made "no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment," and his crime did not rise to the "level of adults who prey on children."
(Forsyth, Georgia)