03-08-2006, 06:12 AM
|
 |
♦*♥Moderatrix♥*♦
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: on top of it all
Posts: 50,568
|
|
|
Court says oral sex law violates rights
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A 22-year-old Californian
man who received oral sex from a sixteen-year-old girl
should not be forced to register for life as a sex
offender, the California Supreme Court ruled on
Monday.
The state's top court found that California denied
Vincent Hofsheier equal protection under the law
because those having intercourse in such circumstances
would not be forced to register as lifetime sex
offenders.
Hofsheier appealed after being ordered to register his
name on the list, which is shared with the public and
carries significant stigma.
"Requiring mandatory lifetime registration of all
persons who, like defendant here, were convicted of
voluntary oral copulation with a minor of the age of
16 or 17, but not of someone convicted of voluntary
sexual intercourse with a minor of the same age,
violates the equal protection clauses of the federal
and state Constitutions," the court ruled.
"We perceive no reason why the legislature would
conclude that persons who are convicted of voluntary
oral copulation with adolescents 16 to 17 years
old...constitute a class of 'particularly incorrigible
offenders'... who require lifetime surveillance as sex
offenders."
U.S. law on oral sex has evolved over the years, and
it was not until 1975 that oral sex between consenting
adults was decriminalized in California. Today, in 38
of the 50 U.S. states consensual sex with a 16- or
17-year old is legal.
In the case, Hofsheier pleaded guilty and received
probation after meeting the teenager in an Internet
chat room and sharing rum and orange juice with her at
a beach.
The California Supreme Court's decision returns the
case to a lower court to decide whether he should
still be subject to registration under that court's
discretionary authority.
|
Threaded Mode