Misleading: SB 145 Bill Reduces Penalties for Sex Crimes
The Claim
California Governor Gavin Newsom made it so that convicted sexual predators have lighter sentences.
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Emerging story
In September 2020, Newsom signed the SB 145 bill, which changed the state’s policy toward sexual predators. It lessened some sentences, which prompted outrage for some social media users.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found that SB 145’s purpose is not to protect convicted sexual offenders.
What it actually does is make it so that LGBT+ people experience the same legal treatment as heterosexual people. In essence, it makes it so that Romeo and Juliet laws apply to LGBT+ people as they do currently to heterosexual people.
State Senator Scott Weiner, who authored the bill, said: “A 19-year-old has a 17-year-old girlfriend and they have sex, that is statutory rape. But the law right now says that the judge does not have to put that 19-year-old boy on the sex offender registry because of the kind of sex that they were having. But if it's a 19-year-old boy having sex with a 17-year-old boyfriend, the judge must put that 19-year-old onto the sex offender registry, even if it was completely consensual, even if they were boyfriends, even if there was nothing coercive or predatory about it.”
Romeo and Juliet laws “pertain to individuals under the age of consent who engage in sexual intercourse, when there is a minor age difference.” These laws make it so that if an 18-year-old has sexual relations with a 17-year-old, they wouldn’t be labeled a sexual predator. Judges often have discretion in these cases. SB 145 allows judges to use discretion on relations between individuals of close ages and extends this discretion to the LGBT+ community.
The bill does not mean that Newsom has reduced sentences for convicted pedophiles or other sexual offenders.
