20 yrs for having consensus sex with other legal adults

There is a widely quoted saying around here: "Don't mess with Texas." No matter if it is stupid or otherwise flawed, she knew the law and broke it. Doing time for doing crime.

Sorry but taking the constitution rights to have sexual relationship between consenting adults away is wrong and the law is unlikely to stand.

Now if Texas wish to leave the union I would be in favor of allowing them to do so and they could then even put the anti homosexual sex laws back into place.

Until then the government of Texas should keep out of adults bedrooms even 18 years old adults.

I need to get a hold of this law but I see no reason whyit would not apply to a middle age person taking an adult education night course and the instructor.

for the record, she faces two to twenty on each count.

that's 10 - 100 years...

hmmmm.

I wonder exactly what constitutes deviant intercourse in texas.

other than missionary is my guess...

Texas will never learn to keep out of the bedrooms of adults it would seems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas

U.S. Const. amend. XIV; Tex. Penal Code § 21.06(a) (2003)

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003),[1] is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court. In the 6-3 ruling, the Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in thirteen other states, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory. The court overturned its previous ruling on the same issue in the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute and did not find a constitutional protection of sexual privacy.

Lawrence explicitly overruled Bowers, holding that it had viewed the liberty interest too narrowly. The Court held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. Lawrence invalidated similar laws throughout the United States that criminalized sodomy between consenting adults acting in private, whatever the sex of the participants.[2]

The case attracted much public attention, and a large number of amici curiae ("friends of the court") briefs were filed. Its outcome was celebrated by gay rights advocates, who hoped that further legal advances might result as a consequence.

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http://www.totalcriminaldefense.com/news/articles/sex-crimes/teacher-student-sex.aspx

Texas Law Tough on Sexual Relationships between Teachers and Students
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By: Gerri L. Elder

On September 1, 2003, a law took effect in Texas making it a felony offense for an educator to engage in a sexual relationship with a student who attends the school where they teach, regardless of the student's age or gender. In Texas, the legal age of consent for sexual activity is 17, but under the law, teacher-student relationships in which the students were 17 and 18 years old have been criminalized.

A handful of teachers have been arrested and criminally prosecuted under the law; however the media didn't appear to go crazy over the law until 25-year-old Amy McElhenney, a former Miss Texas contestant, was arrested on May 25, 2006. McElhenney was accused of having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old male student at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas where she taught Spanish and coached cross-country track. Under the law, the improper relationship warranted a second-degree felony charge for McElhenney and she faced 20 years in prison if convicted.

The alleged relationship between McElhenney and the 18-year-old student was discovered after another student sent an anonymous note to the school's resource officer indicating that the teacher's cell phone contained some steamy messages between her and the student with whom she was ultimately accused of having a sexual relationship. When questioned, McElhenney allowed the officer to view the messages on her phone but denied having a physical or sexual relationship with the student, according to the Dallas Morning News. However, when police questioned the student, he spilled the beans and told officers that he and McElhenney had a sexual relationship and had engaged in sexual relations at her apartment many times.

Texas State Representative Helen Giddings wrote the 2003 law under which McElhenney was charged. However, upon hearing of McElhenney's arrest, Giddings became an unlikely supporter of the teacher and said that she had meant for the law to only apply to students 17-years-old and younger and felt uncomfortable categorizing sex between two consenting adults as a felony. When Gidding's bill reached the floor of the Texas House of Representatives, other legislators added amendments making it illegal for educators to engage in sexual relationships with students of any age, making the law much more powerful and controversial.

In October 2006, a grand jury refused to indict McElhenney and the second-degree felony charge against her was dismissed.

More recently, the controversial Texas law has been making headlines again. This time it is a male teacher and coach who has been arrested for having an improper relationship with a 17-year-old student whom he plans to marry.

Randy Arias, like McElhenney, taught Spanish and coached track at a high school in Austin. He was arrested four days after applying for a marriage license to marry a teenage girl who is a student at the school where he taught. The 17-year-old student had her mother's approval to marry Arias and the mother went with the couple to give legal consent for the marriage license.

Arias is charged with a second-degree felony under the same law that got McElhenney in hot water. If convicted of having an improper sexual relationship with the girl, who is now his fiancée, he will face up to 20 years in prison. According to a report by the Associated Press, Arias has no prior criminal record.

Shannon Edmonds, the director of governmental relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association told the Associated Press that in most cases, if the teacher and student are either still in a relationship or have parted on good terms, even in cases that result in a conviction there is rarely prison time and instead the punishment of choice for the teachers is probation.

Edmonds says that the cases depend to a great degree on the age of the student. Cases in which the student is 17 or 18 years old at the time of the sexual relationship with the teacher have proven difficult to prosecute. In some cases, such as the case against McElhenney, the grand juries have cleared the teachers and therefore there have been no prosecutions.

While some say that age is an important factor in the prosecution of teachers who have sexual relationships with students, others may argue that gender may also play a role. It may be interesting to see if Arias is prosecuted and convicted, and if so, what sentence he receives compared to a female teacher charged under the same Texas law. Ironically, the law was written so that age and gender are to be disregarded; however, those are the issues that seem to be discussed the most by lawmakers, media and prosecutors.

lliB correctly quoted the case where sodomy laws were struck down. The law concerning student/teacher sex will likely get rewritten eventually. I wrote my first response to get a rise out of lliB.

mr lliB...

you got my first smile of the day, sir...

Bill, if it's illegal for a teacher to have sex with a student, then it's illegal. Period. You want to rewrite the law, be my guest. Until then, it stands.

An it was illegal for gays to have sexual intercourse in Texas period also as that was the law!!!!!!!

It was illegal for a black and a white person to married and that was the law period also.

An un-constitution law on it face is an un-constituation law period and it does not need to be rewritten as it is very unlikely to survive it first federal court challenge.

Not even the state of Texas have the right moral or legal to climb into the bedrooms of consenting adults under the US constitution period.

PS if I was on that jury hearing the case the word jury nullification would be on my lips also.

Come to think about it your position that the state have the right to pass any laws would fit right in with Germany in the 1930s.

Taking away the citizenships rights of Jews is the law period.

I think just having a name like "Brittni Colleps" deserves 2 years in prison.

The issue Bill is when a person in authority has sex with someone under their control. The law looks on it as the authority taking advantage of the other person. It has nothing to do with the kind of sex.

Or are you all for police officers offering to let speeders off in exchange for a BJ?

Wait a minute, you mean they are not supposed to do that?

Joe(those cops totally lied)Nation

Either 18 years old are adults or they are not adults with the right repeat the right to have consensus sex with anyone they care to or they are not.

Next are we are going to ban sex between employees and their supervisors in any work place and at any age?

Teachers are in far less of a power position to an 18 year old senior then a boss at a work place.

h

Either 18 years old are adults or they are not adults with the right repeat the right to have consensus sex with anyone they care to or they are not.

Next are we are going to ban sex between employees and their supervisors in any work place and at any age?

Teachers are in far less of a power position to an 18 year old senior then a boss at a work place.

How about putting Bill Gates in Prison for 20 years for having sex with a middle level employee of his company and the hell with the fact that he later married her.

Always keep sex and cameras apart as separate areas of life. Nothing good can come of ignoring that rule.

Read it again, it says because they were 18 at the time.

Sorry it does not limit it to only 18 years olds that I can see!!!!!!

In fact here it is any age repeat any age the state is taking the right of adults to had sex at any age if one is a teacher and the other is taking courses.

In other word if I was taking a night adult educational class this would apply to me and the instructor at my age of 63.

http://www.totalcriminaldefense.com/news/articles/sex-crimes/teacher-student-sex.aspx


When Gidding's bill reached the floor of the Texas House of Representatives, other legislators added amendments making it illegal for educators to engage in sexual relationships with students of any age, making the law much more powerful and controversial.

It is fairly common to limit the rights of professionals to have sexual relations with their clients or people they deal with professionally. I can think of doctors, dentists, nurses, lawyers, judges, police and prison officers off the top of my head. There could be various reasons including the prevention of exploitation of the vulnerable or the suspicion of favoritism or giving of favors. I can't see a lot wrong with that. I do know of a male teacher who when he was 25 had a relationship with a 16 female pupil. He was fired, prosecuted, and fined. (Her father gave evidence in his favor). He helped coach her when she was in university, they are now 12 years older, married with 3 children. However for every very rare case like that, there are many dirty scumbags.