verging_on_random

Crime and punishment in the USA

July 21, 2007 on 4:07 pm | In Uncategorized |

In 2003, a 17 year old guy in the USA had consensual sex with a 15 year old girl. Cause to tut-tut about kids these days and where-were-the-parents no doubt, in a rational society.

The young bloke, Genarlow Wilson, was convicted of aggravated child molestation in 2004 and sentenced to 10 years in gaol. Last month a judge finally ordered his release but he’s still behind bars … because the state government has appealed against the judge’s order.

He’s 21 now, and his life has been pretty comprehensively ruined for doing something that most red-blooded 17 year old guys would do any time they got the chance. They actually changed the law in 2006, partly to prevent such obviously unwarranted outcomes, but that hasn’t done Genarlow any good.

Meanwhile two US parents who tried to do the right thing were sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment last month.

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Ryan Kenty, 20, and his brother Brandon, still a sophomore in high school, plan to drive their mother to jail Monday morning before heading back to her rented apartment to move the rest of her belongings into storage.

Their mom, Elisa Kelly, and her ex-husband, George Robinson, are paying the price for hosting Ryan’s 16th birthday party — more than two years in jail each. Ryan had asked his mother to buy his friends some beer and wine, as long as they all spent the night.

“No one left the party,” said Kelly, 42, who collected car keys that night almost five years ago to prevent anyone from leaving. “No one was hurt. No one drove anywhere. I really don’t think I deserve to go to jail for this long.”

I tell you what Kelly, I don’t think you deserve to go to gaol at all. If you do, so do I, and so do a lot of other respected citizens I know in Sydney, all of whom have been guilty of believing that making decisions about teenage drinking in their own homes is a matter for them and not some interfering politicians who are intent on micro-managing everyone’s lives in the name of morality and the baby Jaysus.

… parents have to realize that it is illegal for those under 21 to drink and against the law for adults to provide them with alcohol.

America … what a fucked-up country.