Do Americans have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of sexy times with animals?
The lawyers of a Florida man who is being prosecuted under Florida's relatively new anti-bestiality law after being caught in an intimate situation with his pet miniature donkey claim that the law violates the constitution.
Carlos Romero, 32, was caught earlier this year engaging in some taboo behavior with the donkey named Doodle, and upon arrest declared that "Florida is a backward state."
According to The Gainesville Sun, his public defenders will now challenge the law on constitutional grounds:
In the motion filed in Marion County court on Dec. 6, the assistant public defenders handling Romero's case -- Joshua Wyatt, Scott Schmidt and Joshua Lukman -- wrote that the statute infringes upon Romero's due process rights and violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.Romero had previously been offered a plea deal that would have let him off with a year of probation and a psychosexual evaluation, and would have banned him from owning animals and having contact with children in a school setting, among other conditions.
The statute's designated punishment for a first-degree misdemeanor conviction, a year in county jail, also constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is excessive, the attorneys wrote.
Instead, he'll go to trial and try to fight the law.
"By making sexual conduct with an animal a crime, the statute demeans individuals like Defendant (Romero) by making his private sexual conduct a crime," his attorneys wrote.
They claim that there was no injury to the donkey, and that prosecutors can't claim that act was non-consensual (despite, you know, involving a beast).
"The personal morals of the majority, whether based on religion or traditions, cannot be used as a reason to deprive a person of their personal liberties," the attorneys argue.
In fact, his attorneys are citing the Supreme Court case that struck down anti-sodomy laws. Uh, yeah, good luck with that.
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