Satutory Rape Ya'll

I know there must be a million articles about Jamie Lynn Spears and her pregnancy, but I haven't seen one mentioning that Jamie's 19 year old boyfriend was arrested for statutory rape. Actually he might be 20 by now, but I don't know for sure.

California Penal Code 261.5 (the statutory rape law) makes it illegal to have non-marital sex with a minor under three circumstances:

1. If the minor is less than three years younger than the defendant, the offense is a misdemeanor.

2. If the minor is more than three years younger than the defendant, the statutory rape offense may be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony, and punishment can be up to three years state prison.

3. If the defendant is 21 or over and the minor 16 or younger, the statutory rape offense may be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony, and punishment can be up to four years state prison.

Sexual intercourse means any penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or genitalia by the penis. Ejaculation is not required.

It is not a defense that the other person may have consented to the intercourse.

Under the law, a person becomes one year older as soon as the first minute of his or her birthday has begun.

I think we can safely presume that Casey Aldridge had sex with Jamie Lynn Spears. His own mom said it was true. The only question that needs answering is whether Casey is going to be charged with a misdemeanor or a felony. Of course I guess the police could just choose to ignore the law. I mean Jamie Lynn is famous, and everyone knows that the same law doesn't apply to famous people. We can't have Jamie's baby daddy sitting in jail while his baby is being born. That would be wrong. Kind of like when a 19 year or 20 year old guy can't find anyone to have sex with but a high school junior.

Now you may be asking yourself, "well what if they had sex back in Louisiana? Is the crime different? Maybe 19 year old guys can have sex with minors there."

That's a very good question. Let's look at the law in Louisiana.

"Felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile is sexual intercourse with consent between (1) someone age 19 or older and someone between age 12 and 17 or (2) someone age 17 or older and someone between age 12 and 15. Misdemeanor carnal knowledge of a juvenile is sexual intercourse with consent between someone age 17 to 19 and someone age 15 to 17 when the difference in their ages is greater than two years."

In Louisiana, Casey would be looking at serious jail time and sex offender status for life. Under the law he would be arrested and charged with a felony. For some reason though, I just don't think he is going to be charged. I think that everyone with the power of investigation or arrest will ignore this little tidbit and the authorities will instead go after some other poor guy who doesn't have OK and US Weekly in his speed dial. If you are not going to enforce the laws equally, then just don't have them.