Don’t get me wrong; I want him outta Austin, but not if it gets him off the hook.
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I’m guessing that at least he’ll leave if/when he gets a change of venue. My guess is someone like this might try to have his case moved to McLennan County.
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They charged him with four counts for one transaction with a prostitute who they have no reason to believe he knew was underage.
Read the affidavit here:
He doesn’t face up to twenty years in prison. He faces up to twenty years per count, meaning he faces the rest of his life in prison for one transaction with a pseudonymous prostitute.
According to Texas law:
If the convictions arise out of the “same criminal episode” and the cases are tried together, the sentences must run concurrently unless the convictions are for certain specified offenses, including sex crimes against children, that arise out of the same criminal episode, in which case the trial court may exercise its discretion to cumulate or to stack the sentences.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-court-of-appeals/1397386.html
Now, I know a lot of you are thinking a) this commenter must be a pedophile gun nut and b) good, I hope Cody Wilson gets raped and murdered in prison. I just thought I’d try to introduce some facts that might provoke thought in a reasonable human being.
Welcome to BoingBoing!
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That. Is. Fucking. Irrelevant.
No one said that, because many of us would NOT consider that appropriate punishment. He should indeed serve time for having sexual relations with someone who is underaged. It’s fucking gross. But he should not be raped or murdered in prison. He SHOULD maybe think about his actions and come out a better person, though.
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The onus is always on adults to do due dilligence with respect to the age of a sexual partner, even in cases of deception. Ignorance can’t be used as a defense when an adult has sex with a minor.
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“I thought she was an adult” doesn’t even fly as a defense for someone who sells cigarettes to a minor. “Getting busted for soliciting the services of a child prostitute” isn’t a problem that happens to people who aren’t creepy fucks.
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How is this a controversial point? Even remotely? What the actual fuck is wrong with people?
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Yeah, it’s fucking ridiculous, but not surprising.
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Some men get pissed if they think they don’t have complete and total access to literally all women of menstruating age. Assholes.
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Back when I worked at a convenience store they told me to card anyone who looked like they might be under 25 before selling cigarettes. I actually think it is entirely reasonable to expect an adult to engage in behaviour that would avoid this situation.
I do worry about age of consent laws where they potentially criminalize ordinary teen sexuality (e.g. where it is illegal for a 17-year-old to have sex with an 18-year-old). I also think that 20+ years in prison would be extremely draconian for the alleged crime. But in the land of draconian prison sentences, this case is never going to be a great example to highlight the problem of those sentences.
Somehow when I think of a 16-year-old prostitute, my sympathy immediate goes to the 16-year-old prostitute, rather than their “clients” (i.e. assaulters).
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Since they are the, you know… ADULT in the situation, right? Again, this is not rocket surgery.
Many states do have laws about that specific case (though not all).
I don’t… it was clear he just wanted to sleep with a teenager and didn’t care to find out if she was legal or not.
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Yeah, I’m just heading off at the pass any attempt to move goalposts towards a more subtle discussion of age of consent laws. I’m willing to stipulate that some age of consent laws do harm, but there’s no slippery slope from that to this case.
If I were a lawmaker I’d be looking to reduce maximum sentences for crimes in America across the board. But, like I said, this isn’t a case I’d use as an example of why that needs to be done.
It seems a little crazy for someone to be getting upset about how big a sentence this guy could get when we don’t know if he’ll be convicted or what sentence he will get. Unless America is even more crazy that I imagine the idea of a “maximum” sentence is that you don’t give it out every time. While America has a problem with oversentencing in general, this guy sort of hits the middle of the Venn diagram for things that shield a person from that trend.
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I’m okay with reducing sentences for drug crimes and many property crimes, especially petty theft in places like stores. Not for ones that are crimes of violence against others, and statutory rape is just that, especially when it’s an adult seeking sexual encounters with teenagers. All too often people get off with slaps on the wrist for those.
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What I’m willing to cede to a person I think is downright wrong (our fellow commentor who I replied to) is different than what I’m willing to actually argue for myself. I’m not going to retreat into philosophizing about ideal sentencing rules for ideal worlds in a discussion of a real assault that happened to a real person. Besides, sentencing isn’t the only problem with the justice system. I’m never going to feel bad about seeing a man held publicly, criminally accountable for sexually assaulting a woman or a child. We need a lot more of that right now. The justified lack of faith people have in the justice system dealing with sex crime is a crisis.
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I wasn’t carded for cigarettes when I was 15 because I was 7 feet tall (6’10" the first time) and clerks (heck, everyone) falsely assumed I must be old enough. So I could be used as an example for the ‘looks under 25 (facial features-wise)’ rule. I never tried to buy alcohol because they were more stringent and I worried I would get carded.
