A Powerful Court's Weird Logic for Softening the Sentence of a Man Who Raped His Own Daughter

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/outrage-man-convicted-daughter-and-friends-rape-and-prostitution-rap-overturned



In 2006, Kelly Vosgien pled guilty to three counts of rape, three counts of sodomy, one count of sexual abuse and three counts of compelling prostitution. The Oregon state court gave him a sentence of 55 years. These charges were brought against Vosgien after he traded cigarettes and money to his daughter and her friend in return for sex. Both girls were minors at the time.

The case had seemingly been put to rest until 2013, when Vosgien applied for habeas relief, claiming “actual innocence” with regard to his previous convictions, paying special attention to the charges of compelling prostitution. Vosgien missed the one-year filing deadline for habeas, but as is common and often imperative with retrials, the appeal was allowed to proceed.

The Oregon district court that handled this initial appeal used Bousley v. United States to throw out the innocence claim, citing precedent: “In cases where the Government has forgone more serious charges in the course of plea bargaining, petitioner’s showing of actual innocence must also extend to those charges.”

The second part of the court’s argument, less lawyerly and therefore more straightforward, claimed that bribing one's daughter, or any child, in exchange for sex must constitute some sort of crime under Oregon state law.

[stevenleser]

1. Very hard to get past the barf-fest of what this guy did to analyze the legal argument.

In fact, I am going to give up trying.

[geek tragedy]

2. Ahem

The recent ruling won’t get Vosgien out of jail any more quickly since he is serving the compelling prostitution charges concurrently with his other, more serious convictions. But this is not the only issue at stake.

[In_The_Wind]

3. IMO: He should be in jail for the rest of his life. eom.