ATLANTA -- The Georgia Supreme Court has reversed Marcus Dixon's conviction for aggravated child molestation in connection with a sexual encounter with a classmate in Rome, Georgia last year.

   

In a 4-3 decision earlier this month, the Supreme Court said that the Georgia General Assembly intended to punish Dixon's conduct as misdemeanor statutory rape rather than felony aggravated child molestation.  The trial court judge will re-sentence on the misdemeanor charge and the defense will urge the court to recognize that Marcus Dixon has already served over a year in prison.

   

The court said that Georgia's statutory rape and child molestation

statutes must be considered together to determine legislative intent.  The law

defines statutory rape as a misdemeanor if the victim is 14 or 15 years old

and the perpetrator is no more than three years older than the victim.

   

"Reading these statutes together shows a clear legislative intent to

prosecute the conduct that the jury determined to have occurred in this case

as misdemeanor statutory rape," said the opinion, which was written by Chief

Justice Norman S. Fletcher.

   

According to the opinion, Georgia law eliminates "any discretion over

whether to punish conduct meeting the misdemeanor statutory rape criteria as

either felony or misdemeanor statutory rape. It would defeat the legislature's

intent in doing so if the State retained the discretion to prosecute the same

conduct as either misdemeanor statutory rape or felony child molestation."

   

The court also noted that the legislature recently declared that sex

between teenagers less than three years apart should be punished as

misdemeanor statutory rape, not felony child molestation.  And, the court

cited the rule of lenity, which requires that the lesser of two penalties be

administered when there is uncertainty as to which penal clause is applicable.

  

 In May , Dixon received a 10-year sentence for aggravated child

molestation, one of the "seven deadly sins" under Georgia law, even though a

Floyd County jury acquitted him of rape, aggravated assault, false

imprisonment and sexual battery. Because Dixon's accuser at the time of the

incident was three months shy of her 16th birthday -- the age of majority in

Georgia -- the jury found him guilty of statutory rape and aggravated child

molestation.

   

Some jurors said later they were not aware that aggravated child

molestation carries a mandatory, minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Dixon's family and other advocates argued that, since Dixon was acquitted of

all forcible sex charges, the sentence was too severe.

   

"We are so happy, so relieved and so grateful to the Supreme Court," said

Ken and Peri Jones, Dixon's adoptive parents.  "The past year has been a

nightmare, but now it's over and Marcus can come home to his family."

   

"For Marcus Dixon and his family, it is a long-awaited happy day," said

David Balser, Dixon's pro bono attorney from the law firm of McKenna Long &

Aldridge, LLP. "There have been too many sad days, for too many people, on

both sides of this case.  Marcus and his family have had only one goal: to

correct an injustice.  Today that goal is fulfilled, and Marcus can begin to

fulfill the great promise that his young life holds."

   

On January 21, Balser argued before the Georgia Supreme Court that Dixon's

conviction and sentencing were inconsistent with the General Assembly's intent

in making aggravated child molestation one of "seven deadly sins" that

automatically receive severe penalties.  Balser said the intent of the law was

to protect children from adult sexual predators, not as punishment for sexual

activity between teens less than three years apart in age.

   

At the time of the incident, Dixon was a star football player and honor

student at Pepperell High School in Floyd County.  He had a 3.96 grade point

average and had been awarded a scholarship to Vanderbilt University.  The

scholarship was revoked after the conviction.

   

Concurring with Chief Justice Fletcher were Justices Leah Ward Sears,

Robert Benham and Carol W. Hunstein. Dissenting were Justices George H.

Carley, P. Harris Hines and Hugh P. Thompson.

 

Source: McKenna Long & Aldridge, LLP