This is what pardons are supposed to be for

S

SmarterthanYou

rebel
to correct wrongs from a judicial system with a vendetta instead of bailing out political buddies.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,536008,00.html

For 15 years, Virgil Frank McCranie has been known to the state of Florida as a sex offender. Today, he's happy to put that label behind him and simply be known as "husband."

McCranie of Panama City Beach is now happily married to his teenage love, Misty. But when he was 19, he was arrested for having sex with Misty, who was only 14 at the time.

After a long legal battle, Virgil McCranie was pardoned by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet, which means he'll no longer be listed as a sex offender in what has been described as a "Romeo and Juliet" case.

Virgil and Misty McCranie had appeared before Crist and the Cabinet in June to plead for the pardon. The Board of Executive Clemency, made up of Gov. Charlie Crist, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, sent McCranie a copy of the certificate of clemency this week, the Palm Beach Post reported.

“It sat there for two hours before I opened it,” McCranie told the Palm Beach Post.

McCranie said he kept losing jobs and their four children have been stigmatized. He could not attend his daughter's dance recitals. That's because his name, picture and other personal information appeared on the state's sex offender Web site after he was convicted years ago to a reduced charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor.

All that is behind him now, McCranie said.

“I hadn’t felt that good since I was 19. I felt clean,” he told the Palm Beach Post
 
SmarterThanYou said:
to correct wrongs from a judicial system with a vendetta instead of bailing out political buddies.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,536008,00.html

For 15 years, Virgil Frank McCranie has been known to the state of Florida as a sex offender. Today, he's happy to put that label behind him and simply be known as "husband."

McCranie of Panama City Beach is now happily married to his teenage love, Misty. But when he was 19, he was arrested for having sex with Misty, who was only 14 at the time.

After a long legal battle, Virgil McCranie was pardoned by Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet, which means he'll no longer be listed as a sex offender in what has been described as a "Romeo and Juliet" case.

Virgil and Misty McCranie had appeared before Crist and the Cabinet in June to plead for the pardon. The Board of Executive Clemency, made up of Gov. Charlie Crist, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, sent McCranie a copy of the certificate of clemency this week, the Palm Beach Post reported.

“It sat there for two hours before I opened it,” McCranie told the Palm Beach Post.

McCranie said he kept losing jobs and their four children have been stigmatized. He could not attend his daughter's dance recitals. That's because his name, picture and other personal information appeared on the state's sex offender Web site after he was convicted years ago to a reduced charge of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor.

All that is behind him now, McCranie said.

“I hadn’t felt that good since I was 19. I felt clean,” he told the Palm Beach Post
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In Florida this man committed a second-degree felony that's punishable by a fine and up to 15 years in prison. McCranie's Romeo-and-Juliet fantasy ignores that fact. What price did he pay for his actions? If Misty was my daughter, I'd have wanted to castrate him.
 
ib1yysguy said:
I never expected someone to defend someone guilty of statutory rape.
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There should be some kind safety net for obvious cases of romantic love between kids. A 14 year old who had sex with a 19 year old seems a bit tame to be a registered sex offender. They are maried with 4 kids he is 34 and she is 30...does that sound an odd age difference?

I agree that statutory rape was an appropriate sentence at the time, but sex offender registration is not appropriate.
 
Ice Dancer said:
There should be some kind safety net for obvious cases of romantic love between kids. A 14 year old who had sex with a 19 year old seems a bit tame to be a registered sex offender. They are maried with 4 kids he is 34 and she is 30...does that sound an odd age difference?

I agree that statutory rape was an appropriate sentence at the time, but sex offender registration is not appropriate.
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Well if that were my daughter and she was 14 and the boy was 19 I would hire someone to nail his kneecaps to the floor, but you're right. 30 and 34 doesn't sound bad at all now.

I think the pardon is appropriate. He has paid sufficiently.
 
Ice Dancer said:
There should be some kind safety net for obvious cases of romantic love between kids. A 14 year old who had sex with a 19 year old seems a bit tame to be a registered sex offender. They are maried with 4 kids he is 34 and she is 30...does that sound an odd age difference?

I agree that statutory rape was an appropriate sentence at the time, but sex offender registration is not appropriate.
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In most states the law provides for this already by allowing intercourse between adolescents and adults if the difference in age is less than five years. This guy missed the deadline by a little too much.

The difference between a 14 and 19-year-old is much greater than the difference between a 35 and 30 year old.
 
ib1yysguy said:
In most states the law provides for this already by allowing intercourse between adolescents and adults if the difference in age is less than five years. This guy missed the deadline by a little too much.

The difference between a 14 and 19-year-old is much greater than the difference between a 35 and 30 year old.
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But, according to you, it would have been okay if she were an infant.
 
usaloyal2theend said:
Well if that were my daughter and she was 14 and the boy was 19 I would hire someone to nail his kneecaps to the floor, but you're right. 30 and 34 doesn't sound bad at all now.

I think the pardon is appropriate. He has paid sufficiently.
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I just think that law does not have to be stupid. In sentencing a judge should have some kind of leeway to allow for a situation like this as far as not making him register as a sex offender.

If a 19 year old were sniffing around my youg teenage daughter nailed knee caps would certainly be an acceptable course of action :cool:

Seriously, I had a not quite the same, but close situation with my oldest. She was 16 he was almost 20...his parents worked with us and we allowed them to see one another in our homes. They waited till she was 18 to start dating.
 
When Leonard Peltier is pardoned, then I'll believe the system has hope.

I think the poor bastard of this story has learned his lesson...and others will take heed. If some college Freshman came looking for my 14 year old cousin, he'd have her father, uncles and cousins to answer to....and she'd get a kick in her ass for her troubles.
 
ib1yysguy said:
In most states the law provides for this already by allowing intercourse between adolescents and adults if the difference in age is less than five years. This guy missed the deadline by a little too much.

The difference between a 14 and 19-year-old is much greater than the difference between a 35 and 30 year old.
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Yeah, my parents are 9 years apart, but they didn't meet until she was 26 and he was 35. :cool:
 
Ice Dancer said:
I just think that law does not have to be stupid. In sentencing a judge should have some kind of leeway to allow for a situation like this as far as not making him register as a sex offender.
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The trouble is that mandatory minimums and other legislature-imposed restrictions on sentencing basically tie judges hands in most cases.

Very rarely do they have the kind of authority needed to exempt an obvious case like this from the required sentence.
 
Epicurus said:
The trouble is that mandatory minimums and other legislature-imposed restrictions on sentencing basically tie judges hands in most cases.

Very rarely do they have the kind of authority needed to exempt an obvious case like this from the required sentence.
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Then there needs to be a subsection to the law in statutory rape cases that can grant a different type of prosecution to exempt it from a sexual offender's sentencing guidelines... Seriously, the law does not have to be ignorant.
 
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