Sex Offender Registry Questioned after New Hampshire Prep School Grad Convicted of Sex Crimes

Fox News
August 31, 2015

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/31/sex-offender-registry-questioned-after-new-hampshire-prep-school-grad-convicted/

FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2015, file photo, St. Paul's School graduate Owen Labrie, 19, raises his hand to be sworn-in prior to testifying in his trial at Merrimack Superior Court in Concord, N.H. Labrie was convicted Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, of having sexual contact with a 15-year-old classmate. He will be required to register as a sex offender for life, a punishment his lawyer likened to being branded and legal experts and reform advocates said exceeds the crime. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool, File) (The Associated Press)

A New Hampshire prep school graduate convicted of having sexual contact with a 15-year-old classmate as part of a game of sexual conquest must register as a sex offender for life, a punishment his lawyer likens to being branded.

Legal experts and reform advocates say the punishment exceeds the crime.

Nineteen-year-old Owen Labrie was convicted Friday following a two-week trial that exposed a practice at St. Paul's School in Concord known as Senior Salute, in which graduating students try to have sex with younger classmates.

The Tunbridge, Vermont, resident faces up to 11 years in prison. He can ask the court to take him off the registry 15 years after he finishes his sentence.

A victims' advocate says Labrie is a sexual predator who belongs on the registry.