The prohibition of child marriage in New York - 17-year olds can lawfully have sex, but cannot marry?

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo just announced, with much fanfare, that he had signed a bill to end child marriage in New York.

Now the age of consent to marriage is 18 only, marriages of minors under the age of 17 are prohibited, and between 17 and 18 are done only based on changed procedure of obtaining parental and judicial consent.

The legislation, the way it was passed, creates bizarre problems though.

In New York, the age of consent to have sex is 17.

And, minors in New York under the age of 17 can be charged with a sex crime and prosecuted by adults - and even the recent bill also signed by Cuomo with much fanfare, that raised criminal responsibility for non-violent crimes up to 18 years of age - did not change that.

Moreover, even under the current age of criminal responsibility for violent crimes - 14 years old - minors as young as 8 can be charged for a sex crime through a juvenile delinquency proceeding.

I remember that in a criminal case I represented, a #JudgeJohnFLambert, assigned to Delaware County Court) considered against a criminal defendant, over my objection, the alleged "sexual offense" committed by a sex offender at the age of 6 (!) - with no proof of it whatsoever, simply on a hearsay allegation of probation department.

In fact, Delaware County was proud of treating "sex offenders" that it kept in foster care - which means they were minors, likely under the age of consent to have sex.  Since the treatment was experimental, and Delaware County did not provide to me, up to this day, on my FOIL requests, any records that a proper formal procedure was followed to secure such experimental treatment for minors, such "treatment" was unlawful experimentation on minors.

So, let's reiterate what is the situation with sex and marriage in regards to minors in New York:

1) a minor as young as 6 years of age can be considered a "sex offender" for purposes of future calculation of a sex offender risk as an adult - while being 11 years under the state's age of consent to sex, meaning that any sexual acts that such a child engages in are PRESUMED BY LAW to be involuntary;

2) a minor as young as 8 can be charged with a sex crime through a juvenile delinquency proceeding - while being 9 years under the age of consent, meaning that any sexual acts that such a child engages in are PRESUMED BY LAW to be involuntary;
moreover, there is a possibility that such a child, as the self-report of the former Delaware County Attorney Porter Kirkwood indicated, is then forcibly "treated" as a "sex offender" - which includes manipulations with his erection patterns, thus "treatment" in itself constitutes unlawful experimentation on human subjects and sexual child abuse;

3) a minor as young as 14 can be charged and convicted as an adult for a criminal sexual offense - while, once again, being under the age of consent, and while all of his acts charged against him as a crime, are presumed to be involuntary under the state law;

4) the age of consent to have sex is 17;

5) but, the age to consent to marriage is now 18?


So, a 14-year-old can understand what he is doing enough to be charged with a FELONY RAPE AS AN ADULT, but does not have enough understanding to marry if he sires a child on another teenager?

New York needs to bring consistency into its sex offender laws.

If 18 is the age of majority, it has to be the age of majority for ALL PURPOSES, including for criminal liability for violent crimes.

If sex with a minor is statutory rape, it should be statutory rape with a minor under the age of 18, not 17.

If sex with a minor is statutory rape, a minor cannot be charged with a sex crime - either in juvenile delinquency proceeding, or in a criminal proceeding, nor can alleged sexual "misbehavior" of a minor be used against him in criminal or civil proceeding when he or she becomes an adult - because under the law, there is no such thing as sexual mis-behavior of a minor, sexual acts of minors are not VOLUNTARY under the statutory law.

As the bill exists now, it makes no sense.

Not only it is not accompanied by raising the age of criminal responsibility and prohibition to charge or prosecute minors for sex crimes.

It also infringes on constitutional rights of minors to marry, based on the current age of consent to have sex in New York at the age of 17.

The right to marry is a basic human right, and a constitutional right in the U.S.

While the state can regulate such rights to ensure health and safety of its residents, regulating the way New York did - allowing minors, by its criminal laws, to have sex at 17, but disallowing 17-year-olds to enter into marriage without consent of parents or the court at the age of consent, makes no sense to me.