Lambda Legal Helps Defend Virginia Man Against Rogue Sodomy Prosecution
Armed with U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Striking Down Sodomy Laws
Nationwide, Today Lambda Legal Helps Defend Virginia Man Against Rogue Sodomy
Prosecution
Lambda Legal
News Release, October 29, 2003
Contact: Eric Ferrero; 212-809-8585, x227; eferrero@lambdalegal.org
‘This sodomy law is dead, and that means you can’t charge someone for
attempting to violate it or talking about violating it; there’s no law left
to violate.’
Virginia Beach, Virginia—At a hearing in Virginia
state court today, Lambda Legal will help defend a man who is charged with
solicitation of sodomy despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last
summer that clearly struck down all remaining sodomy laws in the nation.
Lambda Legal, which was lead counsel on the U.S. Supreme Court case
challenging sodomy laws and argued that case earlier this year, said the
Supreme Court’s ruling clearly struck down sodomy laws in all 13 states that
still had them, including Virginia. Consequently, states cannot continue
enforcing those laws or prosecuting people for attempting to violate them,
although states can pass or enforce laws prohibiting truly public sex, as long
as those laws apply to all people and are enforced equally, Lambda Legal said.
Joel Singson was charged with solicitation to commit sodomy after a
discussion with an undercover police officer in the men’s room of a store in
a Virginia Beach mall, which the officer claims led him to believe Singson
requested an act of sodomy. The men were each in adjacent bathroom stalls with
the doors closed. After Singson exited a stall, he was taken by two officers
to the back of the store, questioned and released. He wasn’t charged until
several months later.
“This sodomy law is dead, and that means you can’t charge someone for
attempting to violate it or talking about violating it; there’s no law left
to violate,” said Greg Nevins, Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s
Southern Regional Office and Lambda Legal’s lead attorney on the case.
“This is a rogue prosecution under a law that no longer exists.”
Lambda Legal pointed to a similar case in New York several years ago, where
the state’s sodomy law had been struck down and the state’s highest court
later said that, as a result, it was unconstitutional to prosecute people for
loitering for the purpose of soliciting sodomy. In today’s case, Lambda
Legal said the Commonwealth of Virginia is asking the court to over-reach and
essentially rewrite the state’s laws, when there are already valid laws on
the books prohibiting a range of sexual conduct, including indecent exposure
and prostitution, that were not invalidated by the Supreme Court’s ruling
striking down all sodomy laws.
In the Supreme Court case that resulted in all sodomy laws nationwide being
struck down, Lambda Legal represented John Lawrence and Tyron Garner, who were
arrested in Lawrence’s Houston home and jailed overnight after officers
responding to a false report from an acquaintance found the men engaged in
private, consensual sex. Once convicted, they were forced to pay fines and
were considered sex offenders in several states.
The case is Commonwealth of Virginia v. Joel Singson. Norfolk
attorney Jennifer Stanton is Lambda Legal’s co-counsel in the case.
###
Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full
recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgendered
people, and people with HIV or AIDS through impact litigation, education and
public policy work.
For more on Lambda Legal’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court victory—and its
broad long-term impact for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people’s
equal rights nationwide—go to www.LambdaLegal.org/MakingHistory.
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