Georgia teen's jailing for sex draws protests

A Georgia high school football player was acquitted of raping a 15-year-old girl, but he still got an automatic 10 years behind bars on a related charge because the girl was underage when the two had sex.

The case has renewed debate about Georgia's mandatory minimum sentence law.

The case also raises the issue of race. Dixon is Black; the girl is White. Also, Dixon is being raised by a White family in the small town.

Dixon has appealed the case to the Georgia Supreme Court, which was hearing it at JET press time.

Dixon, once an honor student at Pepperell High School in Rome, GA, was convicted last May of aggravated child molestation, one of Georgia's "seven deadly sins," crimes that come with a minimum 10-year sentence.

Dixon has said he was targeted with the throwaway law because he is a Black man who had sex with a White girl in a high school trailer when he was 18 and she was 15. Prosecutors claimed he forced himself on his victim, causing vaginal bruising and tearing.

His lawyers are arguing in the Georgia Supreme Court that the state law requiring the minimum sentence is unfair and cruel and unusual punishment.

Rev. Joseph Lowery, a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led a protest outside the Georgia Supreme Court in support of Dixon. "If the young lady was Black and Marcus Dixon was White, I don't think we would be here."

Several of the jurors in Dixon's case said they wanted him to receive only a light sentence and did not realize their verdict carried such a severe penalty.

"That's not what the law was intended for," juror Kathy Tippett said. "They misapplied it in this case, and I don't think it's fair."

Juries are often prohibited from considering penalties when deliberating a criminal case. State laws typically allow them only to decide a defendant's guilt or innocence.

Prosecutors insisted the mandatory prison term was exactly what state law intended for Dixon, who was convicted of aggravated child molestation and statutory rape.

Defense attorney David Blaser said Dixon's sentence "so deviates from society's view of sexual conduct that it shocks the conscience. Unless the court overturns the case, any teenager who has sex could potentially face prison time," he said.

At the time of his arrest, Dixon was a senior football player with a 3.96 grade point average and a scholarship to attend Vanderbilt University. Dixon's scholarship was later rescinded.

Dixon was enrolled in a home economics class with the girl. He said he met her after school in a trailer containing classrooms where they had sex. The girl worked part-time as a student custodian in the trailer classroom. She later told school counselors about the incident, and they contacted police.

In an interview with the New York Times, Dixon said the girl initiated the sex encounter. "I said we should go to my house, that there was no one there, but she said she was afraid someone would see us leaving together." Dixon added, "She said her daddy was a racist and that he would kill both of us if he knew she was with a Black man."

The court is expected to rule in the next few months.