|
|
 |
email this
print this
reprint or license thisSome child sex suspects could beat rap easily now
New S.C. law allows them to use the defense that they didn’t know the victims were underage
By RICK BRUNDRETT
rbrundrett@thestate.com
New S.C. law allows them to use the defense that they didn’t know the victims were underage
A little-noticed provision slipped into a new state law toughening penalties for child sex offenders could make it easier for some suspects to beat their charges.
The so-called “mistake of age” clause in “Jessica’s Law” would allow suspects in consensual relationships to claim as a defense that they didn’t know their victims were underage.
Jessica’s Law, which went into effect Saturday, allows for the death penalty for a second conviction of raping a child younger than 11. The law also requires a minimum 25-year sentence for a first conviction.
The “mistake of age” defense is in one Senate version of the law signed June 9 by Gov. Mark Sanford but not in a similar Senate version signed into law the day before.
Seventh Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy, whose territory includes Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, said he fears a 50-year-old man, for instance, could use the provision to escape a charge of sexually assaulting a 12- or 13-year-old girl.
“I promise you some defense attorney will use it in a case,” he said.
State Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, a criminal defense lawyer, said he drafted the provision in the last days of the legislative session to protect defendants from sexual partners who lie about their age.
“It happens all the time,” he said.
Rutherford said he has a client who went to a bar and met an underage girl who looked much older and had a fake ID.
Rutherford said he doesn’t understand “what the big deal is” about the provision, noting Georgia has a similar law.
But state Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, co-sponsor of the version that didn’t have the provision, is angry.
“If I had known about it, I would have viciously opposed it,” he said.
Bryant, who also serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee that drafted the other version of the law, said he has asked Senate lawyers to draft a bill to be filed in January that would remove the language.
State Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, said he has requested an opinion on the matter from S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster.
“It needs to be cleaned up,” he said. “Nobody wants to use that as a defense to harm a child.”
The provision was part of an amendment that Smith, who is chairman of the House Criminal Laws subcommittee, offered on the House floor May 31, said William Bilton, director of the S.C. Prosecution Coordination Commission.
Gowdy criticized the process, saying, “If you’re doing it at the 11th hour, and you’re bypassing public input, it’s probably not a good idea.”
How broadly the provision can be applied is a matter of debate, because it is paired with language dealing with teenagers having sex with other teenagers.
Laura Hudson, spokeswoman for the S.C. Victim Assistance Network, said she thinks the defense can be used only in situations involving defendants ages 16 through 18 and victims ages 14 or 15.
She said she opposes the language even if interpreted that narrowly.
Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Greg Hembree, whose territory covers Horry and Georgetown counties, thinks the provision could be used by an 18-year-old defendant charged with sexually assaulting a victim younger than 14.
Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484.
