2004-01-14 17:36:18.307321+00 by Dan Lyke 10 comments
Via David Chess: 18 year old black man has apparently consensual sex with 15 year old white woman, gets decade and a half in prison. Georgia hasn't come nearly as far as we'd sometimes like to think.
[ related topics: Sexual Culture Race ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: A ways to go... made: 2004-01-14 23:15:04.315644+00 by: meuon
15 years? Sounds like there may be a lot more politics going on that are not being reported on BET (or anywhere else). Something definately got WAY out of hand somewhere in the social/legal/school process, and once the ball was rolling.. it's hard to stop a freight train. So, if it really was consensual, a young man's future was ruined, and I am sure the young lady is not feeling any better now that this is a major nationwide issue. What did "justice" serve? And, yes, it sounds like race played a lot in this, although that is the way BET would report almost anything.
So.. If he was a WHITE 18 year old honor student/athlete.. and this happened, what would be going on? Or if she were black? - Oh. That happens almost every weekend at every high school..
#Comment Hmmmmm made: 2004-02-06 19:56:28.310684+00 by: baylink
I thought I'd remembered this catching more comment traffic than this.You never know what's going on, immediately. The excellent research skillz of Snopes' wife (:-) have turned up some disturbing, and mostly contractory (to the original reports) information that makes you think this isn't quite as cut and dried as it originally might have sounded...
#Comment Re: made: 2004-02-06 20:30:28.624724+00 by: Diane Reese
Wow, THANK YOU for posting that update! Why isn't *this* part of the story getting more media coverage, hmmmm?
#Comment Re: made: 2004-02-06 21:04:20.117005+00 by: Larry Burton
Because it happened in the South and the old sterotypes just make a much better story.
#Comment Re: made: 2004-02-07 00:51:52.227879+00 by: Shawn [edit history]
I agree (as always when the press and/or Internet is involved) that we certainly don't have the whole story.
However, being a person who follows laws regarding sex as a hobby, I feel I must point out that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution paragraph Mrs. Mikkelson quotes does not necessarily support her point. The phrases "sexual activity", "exposing himself" and "inappropriately touching" in their technical sense do not automatically mean he was "predatory". Sexual activity could have very well been consensual. Exposing himself could have been part of a prank or initiation. Inappropriately touching comes the closest, but even that could simply have been what the school considered innappropriate behavior between what otherwise might have been consenting persons.
On their own, without context, these phrases support nothing. The Journal-Constitution has implied a context, by including the reference to alleged predatory activity, but nothing in that paragraph actually supports the implication.
I'm not defending Marcus - simply pointing out that We Don't Know [Enough] extends to cover Mrs. Mikkelson's words now too.
#Comment Re: made: 2004-05-04 21:25:54.754739+00 by: Dan Lyke
Marcus Dixon released after Georgia Supreme Court overturns ruling.
The high court let stand the statutory rape conviction, punishable by up to a year behind bars -- more time than Dixon served.
However:
Dixon is scheduled to stand trial this month on a separate sexual battery charge for allegedly putting his hands in the shorts of a 14-year-old student.
He had sex with the younger student at a trailer after school in February 2003. The defense said the sex was consensual; prosecutors argued Dixon forced himself on the girl.
The girl testified that she tried to escape from the trailer, where she was working as a custodian, but did not scream or shout for help. "I was too scared. I was afraid he'd hit me or something," she said.
So, working out the math, if he was just released after 15 months in jail then in February 2003 he'd probably already been charged. Sounds like no matter what the facts on the conviction that was just overturned he's a moron...
#Comment Re: made: 2004-05-05 00:06:25.049831+00 by: Diane Reese
... a 14-year-old student.... at a trailer after school in February 2003.... where she was working as a custodian....
So, what, they don't have child labor laws in Georgia? (Regardless of the other facts in this case, this part has always struck me as rather weird.)
#Comment Re: made: 2004-05-05 01:23:38.196886+00 by: Larry Burton
Georgia does have child labor laws, the law allows for part time work by fifteen year olds.
#Comment Re: made: 2004-05-05 02:08:52.952916+00 by: Diane Reese
It says she was 14, though.
#Comment Re: made: 2004-05-05 02:43:57.15573+00 by: Larry Burton
The girl that claimed he raped her was working in the trailer and was fifteen. The girl whom he allegedly placed a hand down her shorts was the fourteen year old. I also believe that a fourteen year old would be allowed to hold down a parttime custodial job as long as she wasn't operating any machinery like a buffer.