You may remember Jessica Lunsford, the Florida girl who was kidnapped out of her home, raped, and buried alive.
Her father is pushing for Jessica’s Law, which would require a mandatory 20 year prison sentence for anyone convicted of raping a child under the age of 12.
Rep. Fagan had this to say in opposition to the bill.
Now, I understand the man is a defense attorney, but surely, destroying a child on the witness stand is not going to win you points with the jury?
The columnist you link to does not provide any context for the alleged statement of Rep. Fagan and he (the columnist) surrenders all his credibility in his first line:
Is that what he said? Really? He said “I’ll torment young victims on the witness stand to defend my perv clients?”
Without any context, I can’t comment on the quoted lines, but I will say that the job of a defense attorney is to vigorously test the state’s case. Nobody is a “perv” or a “victim” until a jury says so. I suspect that this guy was trying to make a point that this law will cause young accusers to come under greater fire in courtrooms.
Having said that, I still support the law, but the pearl clutching in that column is only so much demagoguery and tabloid mongering.
Oh no, we don’t just have defense attorneys that belittle child sex victims. At least one judge, Maria Lopez , used her bench to give impossibly small sentences to a violent pedophile to get back at a prosecutor. The count of Boston Catholic Church sex crimes victims is in the 100’s now.
"Charles “Ebony” Horton was tried for and pleaded guilty to kidnapping, assault with intent to rape a child under 16, indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, assault and battery, and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon. Horton, while dressed as a woman, used a ruse to lead an 11-year old boy to an abandoned warehouse where he forced to the boy to simulate sex acts after holding a screwdriver to the child’s neck.[4]
During the sentencing phase of the trial, Suffolk County District Attorney David Deakin who had asked Lopez to give Horton an eight to ten year jail sentence, tried to protest her decision to sentence Horton to house arrest and five years’ of probation. Judge Lopez, who was angered by the presence of members of the media, proceeded to upbraid the prosecutor as she suspected he had alerted the press.[5] During her outburst, she angered members of the victims family by referring to the case as a “low-level” offense. Judge Lopez’s decision also angered residents of the Mary Ellen McCormack housing development in South Boston where Horton would serve his house arrest.[6] Horton was later evicted from the housing development based on the conviction."
What was the judge’s reasoning for such a lenient sentence? I thought judges had sentencing guidelines to follow.
The clinical term for her behavior was “highly unstable mega-bitch”. Plenty of people worked to have her step down and it eventually succeeded.
So how is Fagan thought of up there? We have our share of loons in the Florida Senate and House too.
Fagan is just another corrupt democratic MA politician. he doen’t realize (or care about) the conflict of interest (or his total dishonesty, in serving as a lawyer WHILE he is employed as a legislator). He exemplifies all that is wrong with MA politics: sleazy, immoral, and greedy, with no regard for law or the truth (only as far as it can benefit him)!
Which is why you will never see any meaningful reform in MA-hacks like fagan like things the way they are!
Is state legislator in Massachusetts a full-time job?
In my state, it’s very common for state delegates and senators to have other, “real” jobs.
I’m surprised the full quote hasn’t been brought up in this thread yet. We have this post over in the FOX News thread in Cafe Society providing the full quote. Independent verification found here in a video.
Fagan’s using grisly language to make a point that trial lawyers must put the kids through hell in order to give the defendant their constitutional shot at a fair trial. Cold? Yeah. Stupid? Politically, probably, especially since the news folks are having a field day editing his quote. But it makes sense to me.
Here is a video excerpt of the speech. He does say that – exactly.
The video begins with that quote, so there is no way to tell what he might have said to get there.
The clip does include a part of his followup though:
Hee is another story about the law. And the arguement against the mandatory sentencing is put forth by House Judiciary Chairman Eugene L. Flaherty.