I haven't commented on sexting before. That's where teens 17 and under send naked photos of themselves to their friends over their cell phones. Over at
http://nudiarist.blogspot.com he has done a great job of showing just how stupid district attorneys and lawmakers can be.
After reading about this poor guy and girl below, I think it is time that adults in the communities take a stand. It is time for jury nullification.
Jury nullification is one of Americans basic rights. When you sit on a jury, judges don't tell you this as the government really is afraid of its citizens telling them to use common sense. John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States wrote: "The jury has the right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy.”
Anytime you serve on a jury, it is your responsibility as a citizen to decide is the law that the person who is charged with just and correct. If it is not, then it is your responsibility to find the person innocent. It is an important safeguard of last resort against wrongful imprisonment and government tyranny. All citizens when they are on a jury MUST be aware of this basic right of all American citizens.
Scared to do it? During prohibition juries routinely found people innocent of alcohol violations. About 60% of all case had jury nullification of that stupid law.
Here is the sad story:
"Sexting lands teen on sex offender list
Marissa Miller was 12 when she took cell phone photos of herself in a bra
Her mother, MaryJo, is suing the DA to prevent him from filing charges
Jessica Logan committed suicide after her nude photo was sent to several teens
Phillip Alpert is a registered sex offender as a result of sending a nude photograph of his 16-year-old girlfriend.
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen & Unplanned Pregnancy, a private nonprofit group whose mission is to protect children, and CosmoGirl.com, surveyed nearly 1,300 teens about sex and technology. The result: 1 in 5 teens say they've sexted even though the majority know it could be a crime...
"You will find me on the registered sex offender list next to people who have raped children, molested kids, things like that"...
Alpert's attorney Larry Walters agrees and he's fighting to get Alpert removed from Florida's sex offender registry. The law lags behind the technology, he says. "Sexting is treated as child pornography in almost every state and it catches teens completely offguard because this is a fairly natural and normal thing for them to do. It is surprising to us as parents, but for teens it's part of their culture."
...Critics, however, say child pornography laws on the possession or dissemination of graphic images were never meant to apply to teen sexting and that these teenagers usually have no criminal intent when they send pictures to each other.
Fifteen-year-old Marissa Miller of northeastern Pennsylvania was 12 when she and a friend snapped themselves wearing training bras. "I wasn't trying to be sexual," she says, "I was having fun with my friends at a sleepover, taking pictures, dancing to music." The picture recently surfaced on a student's cell phone and Marissa's mom, MaryJo Miller, was contacted by Skumanick. "He told me that he had a full nude photo of my daughter," says MaryJo Miller, who calls the picture innocent.
Rather than force her daughter to take the classes, which would have required she write a report explaining why what she did was wrong, Miller and two other families ?-- with the help of the ACLU -- are suing the district attorney to stop him from filing charges. "We believe she was the victim and that she did nothing wrong," says Miller. "How can I ask her to compromise her values...
As for Alpert, life is not easy as a registered sex offender, a label he will carry until the age of 43. He's been kicked out of college, he cannot travel out of the county without making prior arrangements with his probation officer, he has lost many friends and is having trouble finding a job because of his status as a convicted felon. He says he feels terrible about sending the photo of his ex-girlfriend, especially since they were once so close.
At the same time, Alpert says, "I'm being punished for the rest of my life for something that took two minutes or less to do." Says attorney Walters, "Some judges have the good sense and reasonableness to treat this as a social problem and others are more zealous in their efforts to put everybody away and I think it's time as a society that we step back a little bit and avoid this temptation to lock up our children..."
For the full story CLICK HERE
These district attorney's should be locked up. The charge should be for being criminally STUPID!
Until district attorneys come to their senses or state legislatures do (hahahahaha that is funny, politicians coming to there senses where campaign contributions aren't involved), it is the duty and responsibility of citizens everywhere to say "Enough is enough! Our teenagers may be silly, they may be dumb, but sexting is not a crime. It is time for our government to stop wasting the taxpayers money and go after real criminals."
Tom
http://sunnyfun.com1-800-786-6938
Posted by Tom Mulhall at 12:52 PM 0 comments
Labels: sexting
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