4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN KANSAS SUPREME COURT
NEWS
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2005
KANSAS SUPREME COURT
Court rules gay, straight sex must be equal
Attorney General has no plans to appeal unanimous decision
BY JOHN HANNA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — Attorney General Phill Kline doesn't plan to appeal a unanimous ruling Friday by the Kansas Supreme Court that the state cannot punish illegal underage sex more harshly if it involves homosexual acts.
The American Civil Liberties Union hopes to get the case to a lower court next week to obtain the release of Matthew R. Limon, serving a prison sentence
Had one of them been a girl, Limon could have faced only 15 months behind bars under a special "Romeo and Juliet" law allowing lighter punishment for teenage sex. He already has served more than five years and national groups on both sides of the gay rights debate were watching his case.
of 17 years and two months for performing a sex act on a 14-year-old boy in 2000.
decision further, he doesn't anticipate asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. Kline has repeatedly described Limon as a predator because Limon's criminal record already contained two similar offenses.
Kline said in a statement that while he needed to review the
In a unanimous decision, the court ordered Limon resentenced as if the law treated illegal gay sex and illegal straight sex the same and gave the state 30 days to act. It also struck the language from the law that resulted in the different treatment.
Kansas' high court said the different treatment violated Limon's constitutional right of equal protection.
In a unanimous decision, the court ordered Limon resentenced as if the law treated illegal gay sex and illegal straight sex the same and gave the state 30 days to act.
Justice Marla Luckert wrote
the "immediate, continuing and real injuries" caused by the law outweighed "any legitimate justification" for it. Lower courts ruled the state could justify the law as protecting children's traditional development, fighting disease or strengthening traditional values.
The law's language "suggests animus toward teenagers who engage in homosexual sex," Luckert wrote, adding, "Moral
disapproval of a group cannot be a legitimate state interest."
The case will return to Miami County District Court. County Attorney David Miller said he hadn't decided how he would respond because he wanted to thoroughly review the decision first.
Even if the prosecutor decides to charge Limon anew, he's already served longer than the maximum sentence allowed under the Romeo and Juliet law.
Limon is now at the state's medium-security prison in Elsworth.
"We are very happy that Matthew will soon be getting out of prison," said James Esseks, of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, who represented Limon. "We are sorry there is no way to make up for the extra four years he spent in prison simply because he is gay."
Both Limon and the other boy, identified only as M.A.R. in court documents, lived at a Paola group home for the developmentally disabled. In court, an official described M.A.R. as mildly retarded and Limon as functioning at a slightly higher level but not as an 18-year-old.
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