Dozens of people packed the courtroom to hear Dixon's case, which has become controversial because he is black and the girl is white. Protesters have said Dixon would not have received such a long sentence if not for his race.
Bunk. The judge had no discretion here due to mandatory sentencing. This case is virtually
identical to one in [IIRC] Wisconsin or Minnesota several years ago, except that both parties were
white, the sex was consenting by the victim's admission, and the mandatory minimum sentence was
20 years. Oops, so much for the race-card arguments....
In this case, which I happened to learn of from Oprah Winfrey, who dedicated an hour-long episode to it, the boy was a high school senior (18 y.o.) and the girl was either a freshman or sophomore (15 y.o.). They had been dating for months with the knowledge of their parents, school officials, and their peers. The girl becomes pregnant, they talk of getting
married, the boy and girl approach her mother about the pregancy. Mother goes ballistic, girl and mother get into a screaming match, which turns into a physical altercation with the mother slapping the girl and knocking her to the floor.
The boy becomes frightened, fearing someone is going to get hurt, he calls 911. The police respond, the mother is furious her 'little angel' is pregnant, police start asking questions, discover the girl is 15 (minor) and the boy is 18 (adult), turn it over to the prosecutor, who files
statutory rape charges against the boy (by that time he turned 19).
The prosecutor decides to charge him under the state's new Felony Sexual Predator Law, which was enacted in response to a highly publicized case where a man well beyond his 30's abucted/raped/murdered a young girl after being paroled from prison. The man had numerous convictions for sexual misconduct, sexual assault, and child molestation, but kept getting paroled.
Being a statutory rape case, the defense is
prohibited from even raising the issue of consent at trial, and the jury is forbidden to hear or consider testimony regarding consent, since the issue is entirely irrelevant. Basically, a slam dunk conviction, the girl is compelled to testify who got her pregnant and the boy freely admitted to police and prosecutors he was the father of the child.
Within hours of being discharged, the jury is
appalled to discover it is a felony, carrying a mandatory sentence of
20 years, lifetime registration as a Sexual Predator/Offender, and Sexual Offender reporting requirement. Further, he was prohibited from having any contact with the girl or his child. All but two members of the jury speak out in opposition and start a campaign to have the conviction overturned, set aside, or pardoned by the Governor. His defense attorney immediately files motions to have the verdict set-aside, appeals, etc.
It received a lot of state and local press, a bit of national attention. The prosecutor is harshly criticized, who arrogantly snips to one reporter "I don't make the laws. If someone doesn't like the sentence for this crime, take it up with the legislature, not me", oblivious to the fact the law did not obligate him to prosecute under the more severe Sexual Predator law.
I don't remember hearing of the eventual outcome, except that the child was like two years old at the time the Winfrey episode was taped, the judge had used some arcane legal maneuver to post-pone sentencing, released the boy with court supervision pending appeal, and he was still prohibited from seeing either the girl or his child without a court-appointed supervisor present at all times.
But hey,
15 can get you a whole lot more than 20 in Montana:
Montana § 45-5-501 et seq.
Statutory Rape Defined as: Sexual intercourse with someone under age 16.
Penalty: Life imprisonment or between two and 100 years. If the victim is under age 16 and the offender is at least three years older, life imprisonment or four to 100 years.
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