This is a sensitive subject, I know.

But it seems to me that the judgment in this case is unduly harsh. It simply makes no sense.

Honestly, should a seventeen year old kid be sent to prison for ten years because he had consensual (oral) sex with a fifteen your old girl?  That’s what has happened.

Now obviously, we don’t want 30 year old men having sex with 16 year old girls, even if the 16 year old girl "consents".  And a good statutory rape law can be easily drafted to criminalize this behavior.

But Georgia’s statutory rape statute lead to bizarre results.  Ironically, Georgia amended its statute so that the oral sex between a 17 year old and a fifteen year old would result in a misdemeanor.  But in this particular case, the "act" occurred before the law was rewritten, and the new statute was not retroactive.

So we have a kid with good grades and no criminal record, going to jail for 10 years.

Prof. Volokh examines the case, and concludes that the judge was right (the judge was following the law) — it was the Georgia legislature that screwed up.

UPDATE:  On the other hand, ten years is too mild a sentence for a woman who "rented her 9-year-old daughter to a pedophile more than 200 times", including assisting the pedophile by physically restraining her daughter.