Prometheus 6

A reminder of what is at stake:

Marcus Dixon, of Rome, Ga., should be enjoying life in his freshman year at Vanderbilt University. Instead, he is locked up in a Georgia prison. Dixon was a star athlete who received a football scholarship to play at Vanderbilt, a member of the National Honor Society with a 3.96 grade point average, and scored over 1200 on his SAT. He since lost his scholarship to Vanderbilt and was permanently expelled from high school just one course away from graduation.
Shortly after being accepted to Vanderbilt, Dixon was accused of having forcible sex with a white girl three months shy of her sixteenth birthday. Marcus and others maintained that the sexual rendezvous, which took place on school grounds, was planned ahead of time. Several of the girl's classmates also testified that she had told them it was consensual.

It took the jury (9 whites and 3 blacks) only 20 minutes to acquit Marcus of charges of rape, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and sexual battery. The jury also concluded that, as was Dixon's claim, the sex was completely consensual.

Because Dixon was legally an adult at the time, the jury voted to convict him of misdemeanor statutory rape and aggravated child molestation. The latter carries a mandatory 10-year sentence with no hope of parole. The jurors hadn't been told about the sentencing guidelines, and several later said they believed they were agreeing to a very light charge that would allow Marcus to return home that afternoon. They were shocked when they heard the judge read the sentence.

Marcus Dixon is now serving 10 years for having consensual sex with a girl that was 15 years and 9 months old -- just three months shy of the legal age of consent -- while he, at 18, was technically an adult.

ATLANTA, May 3 — The aggravated child molestation conviction of a young man who was 18 when he had sex with a 15-year-old high school classmate was overturned on Monday by the Georgia Supreme Court in a 4-to-3 vote. He was released on his own recognizance, his lawyer said.

The young man, Marcus Dixon, was also convicted last May of misdemeanor statutory rape, and the justices said prosecutors should have brought that charge alone, without the more serious molesting count. He has been serving a 10-year sentence for molesting; the trial judge must still sentence him for statutory rape, but he has already served more than its one-year maximum term. Mr. Dixon was acquitted of rape, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and sexual battery.

Mr. Dixon is black, and the girl he had sex with is white. His conviction was attacked by civil rights groups and was reported on programs like "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Kweisi Mfume, president of the N.A.A.C.P., said he was "elated" at the ruling.

The girl suffered vaginal bruising, a cut lip and bruised arms, prosecutors said. The defense produced three classmates who said the arm bruises were there days before. Supporters of Mr. Dixon said they believed the girl was afraid her father would be angry that she had been with an African-American. Prosecutors contended the sex was against her will, and the justices Monday emphasized that consent was never proved.

Chief Justice Norman S. Fletcher wrote for the majority that there was "a clear legislative intent" that crimes like Mr. Dixon's be prosecuted as misdemeanor statutory rape, and that prosecutors not be able to choose among molestation laws. And since the statutory rape law overlapped with the molestation law, he wrote, Mr. Dixon was entitled to be prosecuted under it alone because it was more recent, more specific and carried a lesser sentence. He urged the Legislature to clarify the law.

The dissenting justices said that Mr. Dixon was convicted of two separate crimes based on different facts in the incident last year.

Leigh Patterson, the Floyd County district attorney, said her office would ask the court to reconsider.