My name is Sean Messano.
A commenter on my old post on 18 U.S.C. 2422(b) [which now mandates a minimum of 10 years in prison for using the internet to knowingly entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity] writes:
I was convicted of 2422(b) in 2002 by a jury in Los Angeles, CA (9th Circuit). My first jury was deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. The second jury was also deadlocked but after repeated instruction from the judge to further deliberate they eventually convicted.
. . .
At sentencing I was given 60 months. . . . My appeals have been published on the internet. If you google my name, not only do the appeals come up, but sites dedicated to indiscriminately outing, stigmatizing and ostracizing all “sex offenders” bring up my picture. . . .
I have lost jobs due to people in my offices and my industry googling my name. I have been victimized and forced to again defend myself by a former employer that exploited my registration requirements in order to intimidate and prevent me from receiving unemployment benefits. I have lost apartments and I cannot find suitable employment due to our society’s insistence on background checks for everything. I am forced to register not only annually on or around my birthday, but also every time I change my address, occupation or vehicle. For a man that is trying to work freelance on movies many times in different states, registration has all but killed my career. I have lost friends. I have lost family. I have lost relationships. I have lost respect. I have lost the presumption of innocence (although, in this type of incendiary case I don’t believe any defendant is actually afforded the presumption of innocence). I have lost MY NAME. I don’t know what I have not lost other than the uncompromising and unconditional love of a handful of friends and family.
I can only say that I am lucky I was not arrested more recently as taking a plea bargain under the newly imposed Federal Sentencing Guidelines would have given me something as severe and unjust as ten years, not to mention what kind of a Draconian sentence I would receive if I chose to go to trial. . . .
Brought out into the light, this law is intrinsically unconstitutional and it is only in the shadows of politics and policy does it survive. If guilty, a man must be punished, but then be given the chance to redeem himself. If innocent, a man must be allowed to defend himself against a law that is reasonable and fair. And lastly, without fear of going to trial and receiving a sentence that breaks his soul and in effect forces him to plead guilty in order to salvage what is left of his time not behind bars, an innocent man must be allowed his day in court.
I was not guilty. I am not guilty. At trial and for the rest of my life, I will forever say, “I am innocent”.
My name is Sean Messano.
As far as I’m concerned, his first jury’s inability to find Mr. Messano guilty beyond a reasonable doubt established his innocence.
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I know the feeling. I am going through a similar situation. I, too, was forced into a guilty plea on a Domestic assault that I did not commit but a defendant, especially those that do not have money, has no choice but to plead guilty of face a rediculous amount of time for a crome he/she did not commit. This system is unjust and needs to be revamped as a whole. In Connecticut, incarceration is for profit so I do not see change in sight but I am going to try my best to single handedly start to change the system. I can only wish you the best. Good luck with the rest of your life.
1Thanks, Michael!
2