great news for Georgia teens!

[taranaki]

Since 1833, it has been a crime in Georgia for unmarried people to engage in sex.

But a decision issued Monday by the Georgia Supreme Court voids the controversial and seldom-used statute when applied against people in private, consensual sexual relationships.

The court threw out the fornication conviction against Jesse McClure, who was 16 when he was found having sex with his girlfriend in September 2001 at her Fayette County home. The girl's mother caught them in the act at about 3 a.m.

The girl, described in court papers as G.D., had invited McClure into the house and had placed a stool in front of her bedroom door. Her mother got in anyway, and McClure bolted out the window and ran. After the girl's mother mentioned the incident to the girl's probation officer, the officer brought the charges.

McClure, now 17 and a restaurant cook, said he was stunned with disbelief when he was told he was being charged with a crime for having sex with his girlfriend.

"Then I laughed for hours," he said Monday. "It was so hilarious they were going to charge somebody for having sex."

At home, McClure was scolded and disciplined. In court, he was ordered to pay a fine and write an essay on why he should not have engaged in sex. Instead, he wrote that it wasn't any of the court's business.

"Invading personal privacy just isn't right," he said Monday in a telephone interview. "It now goes that way for everybody."

McClure said he still talks with his former girlfriend, who at the time faced other charges unrelated to the bedroom incident and was sentenced to boot camp and probation.

The Georgia Supreme Court followed a precedent it set in 1998 when it threw out the sodomy law on privacy grounds.

"Our opinion simply affirms that . . . the government may not reach into the bedroom of a private residence and criminalize the private, noncommercial, consensual sexual acts of two persons legally capable of consenting to those acts," Chief Justice Norman Fletcher wrote.

He added that nothing in the ruling "should be read to address G.D.'s parents' rights to regulate what occurs inside their home, including who enters their house and under what circumstances."

Peachtree City lawyer Catherine Sanderson, who with the American Civil Liberties Union represented McClure, praised the court's decision. "This means that no longer does the state have any say in regulating private sexual activity between consenting persons of legal age."

Under Georgia law, the age of consent is 16.

"I'm relieved that very personal decisions regarding sexual intimacy will remain just that -- person decisions," ACLU staff attorney Beth Littrell said. "This law was simply another intrusive attempt by the government to legislate morality."

About 10 states and the District of Columbia have fornication laws still on the books. Courts have struck down fornication statutes in Virginia, New Jersey and Florida.

yikes...still anti-fun laws in 10 states!Better check with your lawyer before your next date!

[Oz]

:thumbup: ROFL





:evillaugh:

[Neutrino]

:bathroom: :jump: :hehe: :hehehe:

[taranaki]

In court, he was ordered to pay a fine and write an essay on why he should not have engaged in sex. Instead, he wrote that it wasn't any of the court's business.

bonus points for having the balls to stick up for himself :coolguy: :coolguy: