Poorly Written Law
From the Newark Advocate (see http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20081008/NEWS01/810080302):
"According to Ohio law, 2907.323(A)(3) states anyone possessing material that shows a minor in a state of nudity is guilty of a fifth-degree felony. The violation also might qualify the juvenile as a Tier I sexual offender, which requires annual registration for a decade.
The section of the law the girl, who is a foster child, was charged with allows parents or guardians to take photos of their unclothed children for a list of acceptable purposes but does not provide an exemption for the child themselves."
The article indicates that the law was written as such to ensure that children will take the law seriously.
To me it seems like a very poorly written law. Hopefully the judge will use his discretion to get the girl off. If not there is always (remember this if you ever get stuck with jury duty) the option of jury nullification. The jury *does not* have to follow the jury instructions. The jurors can make up their own mind and mete out their own justice. And it's totally legal to do this (albeit a bit unusual since most jurors are not aware of this). So hopefully if this case ever goes to trial (which would be very ridiculous) justice will prevail (though it seems terribly naive to believe it will)(but honestly, can you imagine that poor [clearly dumb] girl being stuck on the sex offender registry because of this.. it'll ruin her life!]
Still, the fact that this poor [again, clearly dumb] girl is going through this makes me sad for our justice system. I can't see that pretending to be Canadian or moving to Fiji will help the situation much.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
