WOMAN FACES POSSIBLY 20 YEAR FOR SEXTING

A Texas mother is accused of sexting a sixteen year old son of a friend. It is alleged that Lori Darling David texted two nude pictures of herself to the young man. For this she is facing twenty years in prison.

Find Law makes light of what I and I suspect most people would consider an outrageous sentence by pointing out that most people in the woman’s situation enter into a plea bargain under which they do not spend any time in prison. Well of course, if we consider the woman to be innocent until proven guilty as we must under our system of law, she is put into an impossible situation. She can either plead guilty, knowing that she is innocent and not be sent to prison or she can throw the dice and go to trial knowing that if she is found guilty she might get twenty years. If convicted at trial and perhaps even if she enters into a plea bargain she might be facing a lifetime registration requirement which may come with residential limitations preventing her from living anywhere near a school or a park where children play.

The Texas legislature is considering legislation that will make sexting a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year in jail. But this law may not help David since it will be aimed only at minors. While it may be more offensive when adult sext minors it is still not worth twenty years in prison and the law should be changed for all.