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Later this month, a North Carolina high school student will appear in a state court and face five child pornography-related charges for engaging in consensual sexting with his girlfriend.
What's strange is that of the five charges he faces, four of them are for taking and possessing nude photos of himself on his own phone—the final charge is for possessing one nude photo his girlfriend took for him. There is no evidence of coercion or further distribution of the images anywhere beyond the two teenagers' phones.
Similarly, the young woman was originally charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor—but was listed on her warrant for arrest as both perpetrator and victim. The case illustrates a bizarre legal quandry that has resulted in state law being far behind technology and unable to distinguish between predatory child pornography and innocent (if ill-advised) behavior of teenagers.
The boy is being charged with child pornography for taking pictures of himself.
[These teens were of the age of consent in North Carolina and could legally have had sex with each other. Juvenile court jurisdiction ends at age 16 in North Carolina, however, so they are being tried as adults on felony charges of possessing child porn... of themselves. -Ed.]
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday September 05 2015, @04:42PM
Jury nullification exists in so far as some jurors do it. It's not a legal construct and it's something that will rightfully get you thrown off the jury if the judge or the attorneys find out about it.
It's astonishing to me how little respect people have for the law and yet are so unwilling to address the issue in the appropriate venue.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 05 2015, @05:12PM
The Magna Charta might be deemed a form of jury nullification. The one and only source of "justice" prior to the MC was the judgement of some pompous royal ass. The peasants of the time decided that enough was enough, and insisted that the people have a voice. The royalty yeilded, rather than be executed.
Seeing that our law is directly based on English Common Law - yeah, the PEOPLE decide what the law is, not the ruling class.
In another post, you mention "respect for the law"? I have none. The circus we have today is sometimes entertaining, and sometimes tragic, but it is simply not deserving of respect.
(Score: 3, Informative) by CRCulver on Saturday September 05 2015, @06:37PM
The Magna Carta was something that was drawn up by Canterbury to make peace between the king and a group of disgruntled barons. It was meant to provide a better balance of power between the king and the feudal aristocracy. While the Magna Carta had an iconic status for reformers in later centuries, the peasantry had nothing to do with the Magna Carta, and none of the freedoms it outlined were applicable for the peasantry. How could you not know this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 05 2015, @09:51PM
How could you not know this?
What can you expect from someone who doesn't use Gamemaker for all their programming needs?
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Saturday September 05 2015, @06:14PM
It's astonishing to me how little respect people have for the law
What's astonishing is that you're apparently foolish enough to respect the law simply because it is the law.
You're also completely incorrect about jury nullification. It's like arguing that disobeying some unjust laws will inevitably lead to anarchy. It's not true because people generally have brains and tend to obey laws that they see will benefit their well-being (laws against murder, for example). It's not an either-or where you either obey all laws or you disobey all laws. Jury nullification is designed to be another check on government tyranny, and when the other checks fail, it needs to be used. I would not convict someone for challenging the TSA, for instance. The courts have failed to defend the constitution by ruling the TSA unconstitutional, so jury nullification can be used to reduce the harm of government tyranny in situations like that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 06 2015, @03:09AM
I respect the law exactly as much as the people tasked with writing it and enforcing it do. That is, not at all.