Yes, if that’s what you’re trying to ask, you have been about as unclear as it’s possible to be.
Personally for me, between 14 and 21 seems a bit wide. But it’s better than arresting and branding two 16 year olds as rapists for life for sexting each other.
It does not apply, because she’s ELEVEN years old.
Yes, I say that’s likely a case of exploitation, too. It’s gross. One is just out of middle school and the other is almost out of college. It’s grown ass men (and sometimes women) wanting to fuck people who are basically generally speaking in many ways still children. It’s really gross.
A tiered system would be better. A 19 year old with a 17 year old doesn’t seem hugely at risk, certainly not compared with a 20 year old and 14 year old who I can’t imagine a mitigating excuse for.
as a teacher who has been in the business for 24 years with 23 years teaching 6th graders who generally are 11-12 and, less commonly, 10 or 13. i have seen more than my share of girls in my classes who look like they stepped off of a college campus. the numbers, in my experience, would be closer to 1% than 5%. my response to seeing them has been concern and pity because i know they are going to be hit on by peers, by older boys on multigrade campuses, and by skeevy adults until they reach their early twenties when their peer group finishes catching up to them in physical development.
for several years i taught a 9 week health unit to 6th graders on my campus. i made it a point of letting them know that they had the absolute right to say “no” to any kind of contact they didn’t want or weren’t completely comfortable with. if one of those girls was in the health class, i would also privately explain the dynamics of the circumstances and give her some pointers on avoiding unwelcome advances and the names of people at the jr. high campus who i knew for a fact would have her back if she reported problems to them.
there’s a stereotypical smartass excuse that goes along the lines of “she looked like she was 20. i didn’t know i needed to check her i.d.” that’s wrongheaded though because while there might be lots of 12 to 14 to 17 year olds who might lie about their age to get a pack of smokes or a six-pack of beer, there aren’t a hell of a lot of people who are going to lie about their age so they can get assaulted. in my experiences, men who get in trouble and try to pull that excuse were engaged in a lot of selective listening to get to the point to be able to tell themselves that they had no idea the girl was actually a child. the emotional responses, the gaps in knowledge, the lack of experience in adult level sexualized banter, all of that would mitigate against being able to hold to the delusion that this is at least technically, by age, an adult. even with the juniors and seniors i taught last year there were only a very few who were able to handle any kind of an extended adult conversation on non-sexual subjects before ignorance and inexperience told out.
Yes, I can read. I just looked up the Missouri law and posted it for information. Geez.
His age never mattered. HER age does. Whether he was under or over 21 is entirely irrelevant when it includes a person WHO MIGHT NOT HAVE GONE THROUGH PUBERTY YET.
And if this had been an 11 year old boy and a 21 year old woman, that same would apply. An 11 year old is a child in ANY state law. Full stop. This is not a “Romeo and Juliet” situation, THIS IS RAPE. Period.
I ran across an even worse feature of Missouri law, but I won’t discuss it here lest I be accused of advocating it.
State of misery indeed.
Lest we forget, Nebraska also blows and Oklahoma also sucks. Which is why Kansas is so windy. 
Now Kansas…she’s hardly a shell of her former “tolerant” self. Sadly, I mean that in all seriousness.
No one thinks your advocating. His age is irrelevant here. Because this involved an 11 year old.
I’ve read thru 49 comments and have yet to see one condemning the damn JUDGE who put this forth.
" There’s evidently a problem with the judge, Calvin R. Holden, who has a longstanding reputation for letting men convicted of violent sex crimes walk free." (bold is my addition)
Until we get judges who can reason through this shit, it will continue to happen.
(Not certain this applies in this jurisdiction, but…) As long as judgeships are elected positions, this shit will happen. And at the appellate level and above, well, 2020 may get rid of Il Douche, but the cockroaches he has contaminated the judicial branch with will remain for a generation. Safe to say, jurisprudence is not going to be our backstop, not for a long while.
I believe that’s what prosecutorial discretion is for.
Oh, and also, why they call them judges.
Are we so fundamentally broken that we no longer protect children?
America needs to take a very hard look at what we have become.
This is unacceptable!
Let’s just say that Texas is weird. The legislature is not in session for, like, 2 years at a time. Also, we have a tendency to elect venal idiots. Not always. Lloyd Doggett has been a rock for us since he was in the TX House and of course we managed to get Ann Richards, so there’s that.
O’ karma! Please rear thy just razor claws and maketh right!
I think you may be operating under several misapphrehensions if that is the question you’re asking. I only mention because in order to do better, we shouldn’t underestimate the scale, scope, and historical inertia we’re working against.
Is that on purpose to make sure the state government doesn’t get too active? They’re governing almost 29 million people and they don’t have enough issues to warrant meeting even once a year? Is this a system that was set up back when the population of Texas was mostly cattle and it’s just too difficult to change now?
when the texas constitution was written it was set up so that no government could do much of anything at one time. the legislature only met once every two years unless the governor called a special session for a particular purpose or set of purposes. the governor was made to be incredibly weak so that the executive barely had the authority to run the limited government my state has. the lieutenant governor has legislative powers that makes them almost the equal of the governor.
it was set up by people who were incredibly hostile to centralized government.
