Illegal Adulter-ito

In this great “modern” world that we live in, some of our practices and laws are downright archaic. Take something as simple as adultery, the act of engaging in intercourse with a person that is not your legal spouse. Sounds bad, right? It’s nothing now. Adultery has surely been happening since before the concept of marriage. But try it in a marriage and shit hits the courtroom.

Outside of marriage, changing partners when you’re in a committed relationship is still considered cheating. But within marriage, a legally binding contract between two persons, cheating can be punishable in court. A slight majority of states consider adultery to be a civil matter, meaning it’s a problem between the adulterer and the injured spouse. The injured spouse can sue for damages such as emotional and financial distress, and loss of companionship. Adultery is an offense that is grounds for divorce and can affect divorce and child-custody proceedings.

However, in the slight minority of states where adultery is a criminal offense, things can get ugly. Making adultery into a criminal matter takes it from a solvable conflict between two parties to a punishable offense against humanity. Each state’s laws treat the offense differently. The punishment can range from a slight fine to life imprisonment, as a Michigan appellate court interpreted from that state’s adultery laws in 2007.

Yes, that’s right, a life sentence for cheating. I can understand suing, fines, and community service. But life imprisonment?! This simply goes too far. Too many of our laws date back to the founding of this country and the early settlers when things were seemingly different. In this case, I’ll name the Puritans as the scapegoat. The Puritans left England because they disagreed with how the religious state was run. Upon reaching America, the Puritans founded their communities by their religion and beliefs in living a simple life devoted to the “one true God.” This inclusion of church and state’s structure and rigidity in community and faith have influenced many of the morality laws and faith bases of this country today.

While the influences of the Puritans helped to build a fledgling nation into the power it is now, there comes a time when we as a country realize that we aren't Puritans anymore. We are no longer fleeing an oppressive rule. Instead, we are a nation of many: many people, many beliefs. It’s time that we accept that morality laws are not one-size-fits-all. It’s about time “when our nation can finally move beyond laws that require citizens to comply with the moral dictates of their neighbors.”

As always, there are people who want to make the laws stronger in respect to adultery and other issues related to marriage and sex, like the Minnesota Family Council who want to strengthen the state’s laws criminalizing a married woman’s adultery and a single woman’s consensual sex. We must not allow this religious persecution through the legal system. We can no longer flee that with which we disagree. We must stand up and fight against oppression. Marriage is at base a civil matter and therefore any issues between the two persons should be handled in a civil court. By criminalizing marital issues under morality codes, we are allowing the government to favor religious beliefs over secular justice, a clear violation of the First Amendment. Therefore, and laws making adultery, and non-marital sex, a criminal offense are unconstitutional and should be abolished.

Sources/Further Reading:

Adultery, in many states, is still a crime

The Puritan Movement: Influences on American History

Life sentence for adultery? Could be / Furor in Michigan when appeals judge says that's exactly what state law means

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Map: Is Adultery Illegal?

The Free Dictionary: Adultery

In 2014, N.H. lawmakers will debate whether adultery should remain a crime

Right to Protect

Recently, an armed homeowner shot and seriously wounded a person who illegally trespassed on his gated property around two in the morning. Sounds like a clear case of self-defense to me. But when I heard that the homeowner is being accused of attempted second degree murder for shooting an intended burglar, I got upset. Since when can we not protect our family and home?

Louisiana has very strong and clear self defense laws to protect people trying to protect themselves. These laws are considered the Louisiana Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground Laws. (RA 14:19-20, RS 9:2800.19) In a nutshell, these laws grant a Louisiana citizen under attack the right to protect their person and property using any force necessary without having to retreat. Given this and the facts that I am aware of, the homeowner was well within his right to use force, the gun, to prevent the impending attempted robbery, a felony offense. The robber jumped a fence at two a.m., rousing the family dog that started barking which alerted the homeowner that someone was outside in his private yard. Given the circumstances that night and recent instances of property theft, the homeowner had a reasonable fear for the safety of his self and his family. Therefore, when the intruder continued onto the private property after being forewarned by the barking dog, the homeowner fired one round at a distance of 30 feet to stop the intruder. By my interpretation of the statues, the homeowner was within his rights to shoot at the intruder. One might argue that the force used was not “reasonable” against an unarmed suspect. However, to counter, one might argue that the force was indeed “apparently necessary” given the unknown fact of if the burglar had a weapon or not while he posed a threat to the family.

One of the many questions that have arisen from this incident is: where were the teen’s parents? Yes, that's right. A fourteen year old was the burglar in this situation. Surprised? As seems to be the case in much of the crime committed by inner-city youth, the teen intruder came from a broken family of eight children raised by the mother and the eldest son, 23, in a low socio-economic setting. As many would agree, this does not sound like a recipe for a happy and healthy upbringing. There are many factors that, if changed, could have affected this teen. What if his father was still at home? What if he didn’t have so many siblings? What if he had a part-time job or a youth group to keep him positively occupied? Pastor Christiana Ford seems to thing this is the solution: to put the blame into someone else’s hands for the problems of the youth. While I agree that having jobs and church programs could certainly help, I disagree that this lack is where the problem lies. All problems that people exhibit can be traced back to the parents and parenting style, or lack thereof. Studies have proven time and again that a majority of low income children have very little future respectable prospects in life and get caught in the norm of violence around them. Occasionally, one kid will shine through, one kid whose parent(s) made an effort to truly be a part of their child’s life and encourage them to be more. I believe that if more parents could take that extra step, no matter how small, we would see less juvenile, and therefore adult, crime.

This entire situation is tragic. A good man protecting his family is accused of attempted murder. A teen with a troubled past is in critical condition because no one taught him now to be good. Both these persons and their families’ lives have been changed because of this incident which should never have come to happen. We as a community need to do more. We need to educate ourselves about the self-defense laws. And we need to hug our children while telling them how much they are loved. Change starts with you. Only until after you change yourself can you change another.

I support Merritt Landry.

Links and Further Reading:

RS 14:19 Use of force or violence in defense

RS 14:20 Justifiable homicide
RS 14:62 Simple Burglary

RS 9:2800.19 Limitation of liability for use of force in defense of certain crimes

NOLA.com - Understanding Louisiana's Stand-Your-Ground and Castle Laws

WWLtv.com - Neighbors react to Marigny homeowner shooting alleged intruder