‘Washington Post’ columnist says Owen Labrie’s punishment is ‘cruel and unnecessary’
Washington Post
columnist Ruth Marcus wrote in a Tuesday opinion piece that Owen Labrie “behaved despicably,’’ but that his punishment is “cruel and unnecessary.’’
Labrie, the once Harvard-bound graduate of the elite St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, was convicted on charges related to having sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 18. He was found guilty on three misdemeanor sexual assault counts and a felony charge of using a computer to solicit her. He was acquitted of more serious felony aggravated rape charges (“correctly so, in my view,’’ Marcus wrote).
Labrie was sentenced last week to one year in jail, five years probation, and a lifetime as a registered sex offender. He had faced a maximum of seven years in prison on the felony conviction alone.
It’s not the year in jail that really bothers Marcus (“about that I remain hopelessly conflicted,’’ she wrote), but his lifetime branding as a registered sex offender due to the felony conviction. Because Labrie used e-mails and Facebook to contact the girl and lure her to meet him, he was convicted of the felony — one that Marcus believes should be reserved for “sexual predators’’ who try to contact children using the Internet, not two teenagers communicating with one another.
“This is cruel and unnecessary punishment: Registering sex offenders is designed to protect the community against the threat of a repeat predator, which Labrie is not,’’ Marcus wrote.
Read the full Washington Post column here.
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