South Carolina Convicted Gay Man and His Sex Partner of Sodomy} He is Suing
Note: This was 20 yrs ago but as the years passed he was confronted with restrictions of what he could do because he was listed as a sex offender. Its possible he was also in the closet at the time. He is appearing as a John Doe now.
A South Carolina man convicted 20 years ago under the state’s anti-sodomy law has filed a lawsuit challenging his status as a sex offender.
The man, identified only as “John Doe” in the lawsuit, said he was convicted in 2001 under South Carolina’s “buggery” law for having consensual sex with another man. The law prohibited certain sex acts traditionally associated with homosexuality.
The man said his partner was also convicted of the offense.
The South Carolina law, as well as similar anti-sodomy laws in other states, was rendered invalid after the U.S. Supreme Court determined in 2003 that Texas’ anti-sodomy law was unconstitutional.
The man received a pardon for the offense in 2006, but he remains a registered sex offender as a result of the conviction, the lawsuit states.
Attorney Matthew Strugar of Los Angeles and attorney Allen Chaney from the ACLU of South Carolina filed the lawsuit on the man’s behalf Dec. 22 in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina, making it a federal complaint.
Strugar said his client’s sex offender status has had a profound impact on his life. He is required twice a year to report to the local sheriff’s office and provide detailed information about himself — his permanent and temporary residence, his place of employment, vehicle information, fingerprints, palm prints and every account he has used online.
He had to file an administrative lawsuit after he was denied a professional license because of his sex offender status, according to Strugar.
“The registration obligations, sort of, take over your life,” Strugar said.
At least 18 other people are required to register as sex offenders in South Carolina due to convictions under the state’s buggery law, or due to out-of-state convictions for similar sodomy offenses, according to the lawsuit.
(By Olivia Diaz odiaz@postandcourier.com)
South Carolina is one of only three states that still requires people convicted under anti-sodomy laws prior to 2003 to register as sex offenders. The other two states are Mississippi and Idaho, according to Strugar.
Because of reciprocity laws, a person convicted of sodomy in one of those three states will still be required to register as a sex offender if they move to almost any other state in the country, Strugar said.
Strugar has previously sued Montana and Idaho over the same issue.
Sodomy is not a sex-registerable offense in Montana, Strugar said, but his client, Randall Menges, had to sue the state of Montana last year to remove his name from the registry because of a 1994 sodomy conviction in Idaho.
A federal judge ruled in May that Menges would no longer be required to register as a sex offender in the state, but the Montana Attorney General’s Office appealed the ruling.
Menges and a second man have also sued in Idaho to end the registration requirement. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in September 2020 in the plaintiff’s favor, but the case remains pending.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel were named defendants in the suit filed Dec. 22.
The lawsuit seeks not only to remove the plaintiff’s name from the sex offender registry but also to stop the state from requiring other people convicted of sodomy offenses to register as sex offenders.
Robert Kittle, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said Wilson would not comment on pending litigation. SLED spokesman Ryan Alphin said Keel did not have a commen
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