[alaskaguy]

Twelve years ago a 17 year old woman, Wendy Whitaker peformed oral sex on a 16 year old class mate. She was convicted her of a sex crime and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

After serving her sentence Whitaker married and purchased a house with her husband. Now she is involved in a lawsuit—seeking to keep her house. In 2006, she and her husband had scoped out the neighborhood surrounding the Harlem, Georgia home they eventually purchased to be sure they were in compliance with Georgia’s sex offender law at the time. That law prohibited offenders from living within 1,000 feet of any area where children congregate. Despite their efforts, local authorities ordered Whitaker and her husband to vacate shortly after they moved in. They had overlooked a nearby church, which was running an unadvertised daycare service.

Ms. Whitaker has also filed a lawsuit claiming that given her crime, her sex offender status is cruel and unusual punishment.

Link:
The Agitator » Blog Archive » Woman May Lose Home Over Decade-Old *******

[LeBron]

Originally Posted by alaskaguy

Twelve years ago a 17 year old woman, Wendy Whitaker peformed oral sex on a 16 year old class mate. She was convicted her of a sex crime and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

After serving her sentence Whitaker married and purchased a house with her husband. Now she is involved in a lawsuit—seeking to keep her house. In 2006, she and her husband had scoped out the neighborhood surrounding the Harlem, Georgia home they eventually purchased to be sure they were in compliance with Georgia’s sex offender law at the time. That law prohibited offenders from living within 1,000 feet of any area where children congregate. Despite their efforts, local authorities ordered Whitaker and her husband to vacate shortly after they moved in. They had overlooked a nearby church, which was running an unadvertised daycare service.

Ms. Whitaker has also filed a lawsuit claiming that given her crime, her sex offender status is cruel and unusual punishment.

Link:
The Agitator » Blog Archive » Woman May Lose Home Over Decade-Old *******

Wut? I thought it was 18?

[alarson]

good comment on the article:

"If it costs the state an average of $45,000 per year to hold someone in prison and if this woman did indeed serve the full ten years, this one, consensual, private act between classmates just ended up costing Georgia taxpayers almost half a million dollars. That has to be the second most expensive blow job in history. "

[Flag Guy]

Black and white sex offender laws are ******* stupid

Consenual acts between minors is not the same as a child predator who stalks and molests/rapes kids. Also forcing people to live on the fringe of the town (which is more or less where they have to with a lot of these lawas) isn't exactly going to encourage them to rejoin society...

Zero Tolerance laws of any sort are a bad idea in general

[tyrelrobert]

So the 16 year old male didn't want it......... Must have been gay

[ISUAlum2002]

I agree, the black and white nature of these laws and their subsequent punishments are ridiculous.

A BJ cost her 10 years of her life? Really? That dude from Milo only spent 4 years behind bars for freaking shooting another guy in the head and dragging his body back home with his truck!!!!

There's a big difference between consentual sexual acts and forceful rape and/or abuse.

[jdoggivjc]

Very similar to the Genarlow Wilson case, which also took place in Georgia-

ESPN.com - E-Ticket: Outrageous Injustice

Apparently at one time it was illegal for the underaged to have oral sex in the state of Georgia - with the punishment being MUCH more severe than if they had just straight up had sex.

[CloneIce]

This is just freakin ridiculous. I know our country was founded by Puritans and there are still quite a few uptight D-bags who think like them, but how can something like this possibly ever happen?

How can this possibly be a crime? Apparently the land of the free still has a ways to go. This is just embarassing.

[bos]

Originally Posted by tyrelrobert

So the 16 year old male didn't want it......... Must have been gay

While your statement is lacking polish , I have to say that it was probably his parents who pursued this legal issue.

[The_Architect]

Isn't it bizarre what a strange country we live in? How can we be both the most liberal and conservative place on earth? Who in their right mind convicted this poor girl? Was the DA in this case even human? It blows my mind that she was ever convicted in the first case.

What a tradgedy.

[garn91]

Just like the situation invovling the wrester last week facing the "no pass, no play" situation, i'm sure this is not what the creaters of sex offender's law had in mind when these laws were created. At last I hope this is not what they had in mind.

[Aclone]

Originally Posted by alaskaguy

Ms. Whitaker has also filed a lawsuit claiming that given her crime, her sex offender status is cruel and unusual punishment.

Everything about this "crime" is cruel and unusual punishment.

[benjay]

It's the deep south. they are backwards in more ways than that.

[Clonefan94]

Wow is all I can say.

[Aclone]

Originally Posted by benjay

It's the deep south. they are backwards in more ways than that.

It isn't only the deep south.

Sex offender laws, like every law, are applied imappropriately everywhere.

Where was it, Sioux City, Council Bluffs? Some kid took a picture of himself fooling around with his girlfriend, and sent the pic to a friend. Apparently he was...exposed, so the county attorney decided to prosecute him. For child pornography, IIRC. And not the buddy who had sent the pic to other kids, or the hundreds of other kids who had sent the pic to others.

Cost the family a whole bunch of money in lawyer fees, and the kid would have been labeled a "sex offender" the rest of his life. Just barely got off.

In my mind, the prosecutor(s) in cases like this should be fired--for wasting taxpayers' time and money. Are they just trying to justify their jobs? Don't they have any real crime to go after?!!

Off my soapbox now...