Washington v. O'Dell (Majority and Dissent)
Annotate this CaseSean O'Dell was convicted of second degree rape of a child committed ten days after his eighteenth birthday, for which he was given a standard range sentence of 95 months. On appeal, O'Dell raised two issues on appeal to the Supreme Court: (1) that the trial court erred by refusing to instruct the jury on the affirmative defense of reasonable belief that the victim-here, a 12-year-old girl-was at least 14 years old or less than 36 months younger than O'Dell, based on the victim's declarations as to age; and (2) that the trial court abused its discretion when it refused to consider O'Dell's own relative youth as a basis to depart from the standard sentence range. After review, the Supreme Court rejected O'Dell's challenge to his conviction but remanded for a new sentencing hearing at which the trial court could consider whether youth diminished O'Dell's culpability for his offense.
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