Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty pardoned Jeremy Giefer in 2008 for a statutory rape charge that Mr. Geifer had plead guilty to in 1994.
In recent weeks, Giefer, has been accused of sexually assaulting his daughter, but Pawlenty had no idea or reason to know that Giefer was capable of committing this act when he pardoned him two years ago. (Even if Pawlenty hadn't granted Giefer the pardon, Giefer was a free man and still would have, unfortunately, assaulted his daughter.)
The issue, then, is was it reasonable to pardon Giefer in 2008? I would argue, yes.
Legally speaking, Mr. Giefer had been living 14 years on the straight and narrow.
Mr. Geifer met his statutory rape victim (and current wife) when he was 18 and she was 14 and a freshman in high school. Mr. Geifer's girlfriend got pregnant when he was 19 and she was still 14 and an official at her high school notified authorities that her boy friend was over Minnesota's age difference of 24 months.
Mr. Geifer was over 24 months older than his girl friend and met Minnesota's definition of statutory rape for girls age 13-15.
It's important to note, however, that this occurred just a few miles from the Iowa state line where sex allowed with a 14 year old if the other person is no more than five years older. In fact, there are many states where a 19 year old having sex with a 14 year old is not a crime.
At the time, of Mr. Giefer's conviction, it made a bit of local stir. The Star Tribune ran the following article on June 1, 1994:
Man gets jail for sex with girlfriend, 14
BYLINE: Pat Doyle; Staff Writer
SECTION: News; Pg. 3B
LENGTH: 474 words
A 20-year-old scrap iron worker from southern Minnesota was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in jail for having consensual sex a year ago with a 14-year-old girl, who wanted the case dismissed.
But the prosecutor who brought the charge, often called statutory rape, says society has a stake in such cases because it often assumes the burden of supporting children of underage mothers. The 14-year-old, now 15, gave birth to a daughter last November.
Jeremy Giefer was sentenced by Blue Earth District Judge John Moonan after pleading guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct. He will be allowed to serve his time under a work-release program.
Giefer said yesterday that he was being unfairly singled out for having sex with an underage girl when he chose to stay and support her and the child rather than take off like other men have done. He said the county should pay for child support while he is in jail.
In addition to Giefer's wages, the couple relies on the Women, Infants and Children program (WIC), state medical assistance and sometimes food shelf donations to support the baby.
"In general, when you have children having children, you have two people who are burdens, the baby and the mother," Blue Earth County Attorney Ross Arneson said. "This young woman has to assume adult responsibilities even though she's not an adult. How is she going to provide for herself?"
Arneson cited recent census statistics showing a sharp increase in pregnancies among single teenagers in the past 10 years.
"The larger the percentage of the population that's like that, the tougher it becomes for the remaining population to shoulder it," he said.
Arneson said that his office prosecuted two other cases in the past year involving men having consensual sex with underage girls and that he senses public support for such prosecution.
But Giefer said he is working hard to support his girlfriend and their daughter.
He and his daughter live with his mother and sister on their hog farm in Vernon Center. He says he earns $ 6.50 an hour cutting steel and pays his mother and sister for rent and baby-sitting.
The baby's mother is a junior at a Mankato alternative high school and lives with her parents. Giefer said he met her through a mutual friend when she was a 14-year-old freshman and he was two days shy of his 19th birthday. A school official reported her pregnancy to police.
Giefer and his girlfriend vow to marry.
"I don't think the case should have ever started," said Giefer's girlfriend. "He's still with me."
She said, "When I was 9 or 10, I had a diary that said when I was 14 I'd have a baby."
Why so young?
"I have no idea," she said. "I figured I'd be able to take care of a child no matter what age I was."
Clearly the DA in the case wasn't prosecuting Mr. Giefer because he felt that some form of pedophilia had been committed, but because he wanted to send some sort of warped message about the sharp rise in teenage pregnancies that county had been experiencing:
"In general, when you have children having children, you have two people who are burdens, the baby and the mother," Blue Earth County Attorney Ross Arneson said. "This young woman has to assume adult responsibilities even though she's not an adult. How is she going to provide for herself?"
Arneson cited recent census statistics showing a sharp increase in pregnancies among single teenagers in the past 10 years.
"The larger the percentage of the population that's like that, the tougher it becomes for the remaining population to shoulder it," he said.
If you weigh that plus the fact that Mr. Giefer clearly didn't fit the profile of a sexual predator that belongs on the state's sexual offender registry, I have to agree with Pawlenty's decision to pardon the guy in 2008.