18 year old black man serving 10 years for consentual sex

our good friends at resident bush alerted us to this horrible mockery of justice:

there is an 18 year old african american honor student -- marcus dixon -- in rome, georgia who is spending ten years in prison for having consensual sex with a white classmate who was just three months shy of 16 yrs old at the time they had sex. although a jury acquitted marcus of rape and three other counts of violent acts, the prosecutor also charged him with "aggravated child molestation." consensual sex with a virgin fits into the technical reading of this georgia statute. the statute has never been applied to consensual sex between two teenagers with less than three years age difference, until now. i believe the result is a horrible injustice, especially because marcus overcame a troubled childhood to excel in academics and athletics.

please read the details, and then sign the petition.