14 February 2004

" A former New York pediatrician was sentenced Friday to nearly 22 years in prison on charges of traveling to Mexico and Honduras to engage in sexual acts with underage boys." (five counts of committing sex offenses against children)

That's just disgusting.

Now that the emotional response is out of the way, I have questions (the article is woefully underinformative). What's the basis for jurisdiction? Are there laws against this in the countries where the acts occurred? If so, why wasn't he tried there? What establishes that breaking the U.S.'s law in another country without any intent to do so in the U.S. is a crime? Is there a crime in the U.S. code which makes it illegal to conspire to violate a U.S. law in another country? Is there a statute in the U.S. code which makes it illegal to conspire to violate another country's laws?

I've never had anything even remotely similar to this sort of case so I've never researched these issues. If anyone out there has any knowledge of the case or the principles behind it I would appreciate any info.

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