When you can legally have sex with a 17-year-old, can you be prosecuted for possessing lewd nude photos of her?

From Commonwealth v. Kushmanick, which was decided last year by a Pennsylvania appellate court, but which I just came across last week (all quotes are from the opinion):

1. The facts: Kushmanick started dating S.C. when he was 18 or 19, and she was 16 (according to defendant, just a week shy of her 17th birthday). The age of consent for sexual activity generally in Pennsylvania is 16. (There is the possibility that someone may be prosecuted for “corrupting the morals of a minor” when the minor is 16 or 17, but this was not an issue raised in this case.)

As part of their relationship — according to Kushmanick, after S.C. turned 17 — he would photograph S.C. naked. “The photographs depicted S.C. naked in a blatantly sexual way. However, the photographs also graphically establish that S.C. was a willing and voluntary model.” Her face was apparently not visible on the photographs, but she recognized them at trial because of various items of clothing and linens they depicted. Full Article

Related posts

Subscribe
Notify of

We welcome a lively discussion with all view points - keeping in mind...

 

  1. Submissions must be in English
  2. Your submission will be reviewed by one of our volunteer moderators. Moderating decisions may be subjective.
  3. Please keep the tone of your comment civil and courteous. This is a public forum.
  4. Swear words should be starred out such as f*k and s*t and a**
  5. Please avoid the use of derogatory labels.  Always use person-first language.
  6. Please stay on topic - both in terms of the organization in general and this post in particular.
  7. Please refrain from general political statements in (dis)favor of one of the major parties or their representatives.
  8. Please take personal conversations off this forum.
  9. We will not publish any comments advocating for violent or any illegal action.
  10. We cannot connect participants privately - feel free to leave your contact info here. You may want to create a new / free, readily available email address that are not personally identifiable.
  11. Please refrain from copying and pasting repetitive and lengthy amounts of text.
  12. Please do not post in all Caps.
  13. If you wish to link to a serious and relevant media article, legitimate advocacy group or other pertinent web site / document, please provide the full link. No abbreviated / obfuscated links. Posts that include a URL may take considerably longer to be approved.
  14. We suggest to compose lengthy comments in a desktop text editor and copy and paste them into the comment form
  15. We will not publish any posts containing any names not mentioned in the original article.
  16. Please choose a short user name that does not contain links to other web sites or identify real people.  Do not use your real name.
  17. Please do not solicit funds
  18. No discussions about weapons
  19. If you use any abbreviation such as Failure To Register (FTR), Person Forced to Register (PFR) or any others, the first time you use it in a thread, please expand it for new people to better understand.
  20. All commenters are required to provide a real email address where we can contact them.  It will not be displayed on the site.
  21. Please send any input regarding moderation or other website issues via email to moderator [at] all4consolaws [dot] org
  22. We no longer post articles about arrests or accusations, only selected convictions. If your comment contains a link to an arrest or accusation article we will not approve your comment.
  23. If addressing another commenter, please address them by exactly their full display name, do not modify their name. 
ACSOL, including but not limited to its board members and agents, does not provide legal advice on this website.  In addition, ACSOL warns that those who provide comments on this website may or may not be legal professionals on whose advice one can reasonably rely.  
 

5 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Very well written article, showing both sides.

Strangely enough, I partially disagree and partially agree with the outcome.

There should be laws that can kick in at different ages over related subjects. Sure, teens should be able to have sex before 18. That doesn’t mean they should be able to consent to being photographed having sex before 18, which is what the judges said they should be able to do. A person can be mature enough to engage in the sex but not understand the lifetime ramifications of being photographed and exploited later by that. Sex is more of a liberty we shouldn’t easily take away even if there are issues, but being photographed naked isn’t the same level of liberty deprivation to prevent laws against it.

On the other hand, taking or having the pictures shouldn’t rise to the level of lifetime sex offender. Where the law fails miserably here, is the lack of different levels of severity. I would have preferred the judges voided the charge because of it being excessive to the point of cruel and unusual, and sent a message to legislature to create laws appropriate to the circumstances. I guess their hands were tied though, since that wasn’t the defense the lawyers put forth.