Unjust sex offenders list

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I have a question for you. Do you think there should be some grey area about putting people on the sex offenders list? The reason I ask is because of a news story I heard about last week. The story starts with a 19 year old boy in one state who met a girl on a dating site who said she was 17 in another state. He drove across the state lines to meet her and he had sex with her. It turns out she was 14 and had lied. In his state there is a law that says if the person lied about their age there is some discretion the court can use to reduce or eliminate the charges. In her state there is no law. Because the offense occurred in her state, those laws apply and it doesn't matter that she lied. He was convicted as a sex offender and will spend time in prison as well as be put on the sex offenders list for 25 years. The girl and her parent pleaded with the court to be lenient. They admitted the girl lied and begged for the man to not get in trouble. So is this justice? A 19 year old boy who likely would never commit a real sexual offense will have his life ruined because there is no grey area with the sex offenders list.