Last edited: February 14, 2005

 

Judge Halts Prosecution of Sex Case

Law Banning Certain Acts Deemed Obsolete

Dallas Morning News, October 22, 1998
Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265
Fax 972-263-0456
Email: DMNEditor@aol.com or letters@dallasnews.com

Associated Press

GRETNA, La. - Citing Louisiana's constitutional right to privacy, a judge has barred Jefferson Parish prosecutors from enforcing the crime- against-nature law against consenting adults who engage in noncommercial sex in private.

The law, which is almost 200 years old, makes oral or anal sex a criminal act, even between consenting adults.

Enforcement of the law has been barred in every other Louisiana parish since the Louisiana Electorate of Gays and Lesbians Inc. received an injunction in Orleans Parish in 1994.

State District Judge Robert Murphy extended the ban to Jefferson Parish in a ruling issued Friday.

John Mamoulides, who was the parish's district attorney, had contended that he could be sued only in Jefferson Parish, a contention later upheld by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Jefferson Parish prosecutors had argued the ban was not needed because the parish does not prosecute consenting adults for noncommercial sex acts in private.

Meanwhile, John Rawls, an attorney representing the gay and lesbian group, said a trial seeking to make the injunction granted in New Orleans permanent is set for Monday before Civil District Judge Carolyn Gill-Jefferson in Orleans Parish.


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