danielle
11-15-2002, 08:44 AM
U. Kansas activists challenge sex-crime law
LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Womyn’s Empowerment Action Coalition, a University of Kansas feminist organization, is planning a trip to the capitol in Topeka, Kan., to show support for a jailed Kansas man, and to protest the sex crime law the group says is unfairly keeping him imprisoned.
Two years ago, Matthew Limon was jailed for giving consensual oral sex to a then-14 year-old boy while both were students at a Paola residential school for developmentally disabled youth.
As a result, Limon, 20, received a 17-year-two-month sentence for sodomy from a Miami County judge. Had either Limon or the boy been female, the maximum sentence would have been one year and three months.
The protesting KU groups argue that Limon would have been released by now if it weren’t for his sexuality, which doesn’t allow him to be protected by the state’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ law.
The law was created in 1999 by Kansas legislators who wanted to differentiate consensual teen-age sexual relationships from situations where older adults exploited minors.
The law covers consensual sexual relations between a person 19 and under and a person in an age range of 14 to 16, if the two parties are less than four years apart. It does not apply to homosexual teen-agers, who instead receive the same legal treatment as adult offenders.
LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Womyn’s Empowerment Action Coalition, a University of Kansas feminist organization, is planning a trip to the capitol in Topeka, Kan., to show support for a jailed Kansas man, and to protest the sex crime law the group says is unfairly keeping him imprisoned.
Two years ago, Matthew Limon was jailed for giving consensual oral sex to a then-14 year-old boy while both were students at a Paola residential school for developmentally disabled youth.
As a result, Limon, 20, received a 17-year-two-month sentence for sodomy from a Miami County judge. Had either Limon or the boy been female, the maximum sentence would have been one year and three months.
The protesting KU groups argue that Limon would have been released by now if it weren’t for his sexuality, which doesn’t allow him to be protected by the state’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ law.
The law was created in 1999 by Kansas legislators who wanted to differentiate consensual teen-age sexual relationships from situations where older adults exploited minors.
The law covers consensual sexual relations between a person 19 and under and a person in an age range of 14 to 16, if the two parties are less than four years apart. It does not apply to homosexual teen-agers, who instead receive the same legal treatment as adult offenders.