Preview:

FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE # 3 FROM: CLERK OF SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA The Opinions handed down on the 19th day of January, 2005, are as follows:

BY WEIMER, J.:

2004-KA-0559

STATE OF LOUISIANA v. TINA THOMAS (Parish of Jefferson) (Crime Against Nature) For these reasons, we reverse the trial court's granting of defendant's motion to quash and we remand this matter to the trial court for further proceedings. REVERSED AND REMANDED. CALOGERO, C.J., concurs and assigns reasons.

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA
No. 04-KA-0559 STATE OF LOUISIANA VERSUS TINA THOMAS
ON APPEAL FROM THE TWENTY-FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, FOR THE PARISH OF JEFFERSON, HONORABLE KERNAN HAND, JUDGE

WEIMER, Justice In this matter we must determine whether the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 123 S.Ct 2472, 156 L.Ed. 2d 508 (2003), has rendered Louisiana's "Crime against nature" statute unconstitutional as it applies to a person who solicits another to engage in "unnatural carnal copulation for compensation." Finding that nothing in Lawrence, the United States

Constitution, the Louisiana Constitution, or this state's jurisprudence supports the trial court's grant of a motion to quash on the ground that LSA-R.S. 14:89(A)(2) is unconstitutional as applied to this particular charge against this particular defendant, we reverse and remand. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND By bill of information, the State charged Tina Thomas with soliciting an undercover officer to engage in "unnatural oral copulation for compensation" in violation of LSA-R.S. 14:89, based on events that occurred on April 10, 1995.

Defendant failed to appear for several court settings, but on May 22, 2003, she appeared and pled not guilty. On June 9, 2003, defendant filed a motion to quash, urging that the statute unconstitutionally violates the right to privacy under La. Const. art. I

Download 04ka0559.opn.pdf

Louisiana Law