Let’s take a quick poll. Which do you think is worse: A) sexually abusing a child, or B) looking at child pornography online?
Such a poll isn’t really worth a debate since both offenses are highly criminal, intolerable acts. However, many might agree that crime A is worse: action is more easily punishable than intent.
Why is it then that prosecutors are often more lenient when defendants have sexually abused minors than when they are charged with computer crimes involving children?
This complex legal issue played out in the case of James Heidke, a 55-year-old Milwaukee former school food services director arrested when he planned to meet up with a 15-year-old boy with whom he’d been corresponding. Posing as a boy named “Patrick,” Milwaukee police contacted Mr. Heidke through an ad he had posted on Craigslist.
The suspect was detained and charged with using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime. If convicted, Heidke would face Wisconsin’s mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison.
Mr. Heidke’s attorney, Michael F. Hart, argued that if his client had actually had sex with a 15-year-old, there would be no mandatory minimum prison term:
Heidke can conceive of no rational or reasonable basis to hold that more aggravated conduct (actually having sexual contact or intercourse with a minor) is treated far less severely than using a computer to merely arrange a meeting with a child, especially here, where sexual contact or intercourse with a child was impossible because the child did not exist.
Prosecutors countered the argument by saying that using a computer to find and solicit a child victim is “a more calculated, predatory act, because actual sexual intercourse could result from momentary impulse and human weakness.”
Ever since this case unfolded in Milwaukee nearly 3 years ago, it has reverberated across the nation, where many states’ criminal codes outline similar – seemingly backwards – sentencing. Whether resolution of this issue means lessening penalties for computer crimes against children or increasing punishments against child sex offenders, many states’ criminal justice systems are now debating the topic.
To see how this same debate is playing out in Texas, read this article from Houston defense lawyer Neal Davis.