The Kansas Supreme Court last week ruled that Matthew Limon should not have to serve an additional 16 years in prison for a crime that would have brought a maximum 15-month sentence for a heterosexual convicted of the same crime.

About a week after Limon turned 18, he performed oral sex on another teen who was almost 15. Limon is developmentally disabled and both boys were living in a group home at the time. The state and Limon agreed the sex was consensual.

Under Kansas’ Romeo & Juliet law, if the two had been an opposite-sex couple, the older teen would have been sentenced to a maximum of 15 months. That law, passed in 1999, states that there should be a more lenient sentence for teenagers having consensual sex with each other if they are between the ages of 14 and 18, but only if they are members of the opposite sex. For gay couples, like Limon, the older person could serve almost 20 years in prison and have to register as a sex offender after being released.

Relying on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 Lawrence vs. Texas decision, the Kansas Supreme Court concluded that “Moral disapproval of a group cannot be a legitimate governmental interest.” The judges struck down the “members of the opposite sex” clause in the Romeo & Juliet law.

Esseks is hopeful that the decision may impact any law in Kansas that treats gay people differently, especially in adoption rights and equal marriage law.

Limon should be released soon, according to Esseks. After he gets out of prison, Limon, an avid piano player, will likely move in with his aunt and uncle.

Some, including Kansas State Attorney General Phill Kline, who as a state legislator voted against the Romeo & Juliet law, painted Limon as a habitual sexual predator.

When Limon was a minor he had a juvenile adjudication for sexual activity with other minors, Esseks said. No additional information is known because the records are sealed.

The Pitch, an alternative newspaper in Kansas, reported that the two incidents occurred on the same day when Limon was 14. It is illegal in Kansas for minors under the age of 16 to have consensual sex with each other.

Critics called the court’s decision “judicial activism.” Some legislators, upset with recent court decisions, are exploring ways to limit the court’s power, the Associated Press reported.

“The court acted as a legislative body in rewriting the actual statute,” said Mat Staver, president of the conservative group Liberty Counsel. Liberty Counsel filed a friend of the court brief for the state.

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