Petition to Virginia Legislators

We the undersigned voters question the wisdom of Virginias’s Sex Offender Registry laws specifically regarding the Romeo-and-Juliet provisions.  Under the letter of the law a high school teenager can be placed on the worst tier of the Registry, with rapists and murderers…  

for the rest of his life.  

His crime – consensual, non-violent teenage sex with his girlfriend.

 

If this high school student is convicted of “Taking indecent liberties with children”, there is no consideration of the age difference between the two high school students.  He automatically goes to Tier III on the sex offender registry for life.  He has no way to get off the list.  We ask the Virginia legislators to correct this oversight and offer a Romeo-and-Juliet provision for this offense.  Give high school students who are less than 5 years older than their victims a path off the registry. 

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Being entered into the national sex offender database comes with a long list of restrictions and prohibitions that must be followed in order to stay out of jail.  Requiring such offenders to remain on registries wastes public resources, ruins lives, and does nothing to improve public safety.

They are not sex offenders!      Please change the law! 

Rectify this injustice to our youth.

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