Originally published at Reason 11/29/21. Reprinted in full with permission. By Emily Horowitz . . . Alice Sebold’s bestselling 1999 memoir Lucky tells the story of a young woman raped by a stranger while attending Syracuse University. In the book, the rapist is caught and convicted. After writing about the experience, Sebold went on to write the bestseller The Lovely Bones, a fictional…
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By Michael McKay . . . Minors cannot legally consent to sex, ever. Not with adults, not with each other, and especially not with their teachers, who are entrusted by parents with a special degree of responsibility for their students. Whenever sex occurs between a teacher and his or her student, it is a crime. There is a word for non-consensual…
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By Michael M . . . Let’s talk about Bedford County, Pennsylvania’s former district attorney, William Higgins, Jr. On August the 17th, 2018, Higgins was sentenced after being charged with using his power as a district attorney to coerce female defendants accused of drug offenses into sex acts. At least, that’s how the news media repeatedly framed it. There’s just one…
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By Sandy . . . This article, found in the Washington Post August 13, tells of the exhumation of the bodies of two U.S. military veterans because they had committed murder after their military service. The article then speaks of the laws that allow this to happen and makes clear that not only those who have killed but also those who…
Read MoreSusan Walker . . . As the mother of a son convicted of sexual assault and sentenced under Colorado’s 1998 Lifetime Act, it is clear to me why Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler chose two years of jail with work release and 20 years’ probation instead of prison for Austin James Wilkerson. Wilkerson, a former University of Colorado student, was…
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