In the prison system, someone who rapes or kills a child is the lowest of the low. A man in Oklahoma admitted to raping a 13-year-old girl at church camp. This should mean he is going to prison.
Even after admitting to brutally raping the little girl at the religious summer camp, he managed to get 45 years of prison time waived.
Benjamin Lawrence Petty is legally blind, and this will keep him from serving any time. While Petty walks away without jail time, the prosecutor in the case was forced to resign because of the public backlash.
This is the plea deal of the century. Petty somehow established in court that even though he was able to tie up and rape his victim, he is too fragile to go to either prison or jail.
Murray County Assistant
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At the time that Petty raped the girl, he was working as a cook at the Falls Creek church camp. The camp is located in Oklahoma.
Petty was more than able to work full time, even with him being legally blind. He was also able to overpower his young victim. Both of these factors show he can function regardless of his vision issues.
The fact that the court even considered no jail time for Petty enraged many within the local community. According to Candida Manion, who is the executive director of the Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, "...failure to hold perpetrators accountable regardless of their disabilities sends the wrong message to victims of crime."
At first, the disability seemed to be the focus of why Petty was given a total of three suspended sentences. In theory, he should be serving three 15-year sentences after "...pleading guilty to felony counts of first-degree rape, forcible sodomy, and rape by instrumentation."
Petty received a very generous plea deal that kept him out of prison. He is going to be required to wear an ankle monitor for two years, register as a sex offender and get
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It appears that in the state of Oklahoma, the systems used to monitor people on home confinement just do not work.
To track Petty, there has to be someone watching the output of the monitor and also understand any red flags that might indicate he is in danger of reoffending. Manion shared that the state lacks resources and staff time to make the monitor useful.
Based on statistics, Manion also shared that the use of ankle bracelets does not keep suspects from committing more crimes. According to Manion, the county suffers from "...a lack of knowledge about sexual assault within the criminal justice system, and what we know about violent offenders is that they will re-offend."
As one might imagine, the news of the lack of jail time for a child predator did not sit well with many people in Oklahoma. What could have been a quiet deal that became buried in the court system turned into a nightmare for everyone involved.
Pyle first drew attention to the fact the Petty has a disability that kept out of jail. As the press hounded him for an explanation, he made it seem like the plea deal was also done to help both the victim and her