Student freed in rape case bound for Hampton Univ

Jet, Sept 6, 2004

Marcus Dixon, a Georgia high school football star whose college career was derailed by a rape conviction last year (JET, March 8), will attend Hampton University in Virginia this fall on an athletic scholarship.

Dixon captured national headlines last year after he was convicted of aggravated child molestation, a felony that carries a mandatory 10-year sentence, and statutory rape, a misdemeanor. He was accused of assaulting a 15-year-old White classmate in a trailer behind Pepperell High School last year when he was 18. Dixon, who spent 15 months in prison, said the sex between the two teens was consensual.

A jury acquitted Dixon of rape, but he was sentenced to the automatic 10 years in on the molestation charge.

On May 3, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned the felony conviction and its 10-year sentence, and a lower court ruled Dixon already had fulfilled his sentence for statutory rape (JET, May 24).

An honor roll student at Pepperell, Dixon had a scholarship to Vanderbilt University in Nashville before his arrest. Vanderbilt rescinded its offer.