Seeking leniency from the criminal justice system, a man facing child-sex charges has made a bizarre offer to a judge and prosecutors even before a conviction: He wants to be surgically castrated in exchange for a light sentence.
The offer comes from Jeffrey A. Morse of Schaumburg, who is in Kane County Jail awaiting trial on a multiple-count indictment for allegedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old Algonquin girl in 1996 and attempting to sexually assault a 9-year-old St. Charles girl in March.
Morse’s request came after negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys for a plea bargain fell apart, sources said. While similar requests have been made by defendants in other states, Morse’s offer is believed to be the first in Illinois.
Though legal experts say it is highly unlikely that Morse’s request will be granted, it raises social, legal and medical questions, the most important being whether castration prevents a sex offender from repeating criminal behavior.
There is no case law in Illinois to guide Kane County Circuit Judge Donald Hudson, who will consider Morse’s request at a hearing next month. But in other states, similar requests and proposals for legislation requiring castration for repeat rapists have been met with fiery opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union on constitutional grounds and from women’s groups, who argue that rape is a crime of violence, not of sex.
Prosecutors plan to fight Morse’s request, said David Clark, a spokesman for the Kane County state’s attorney’s office. “It’s not legal,” Clark said.
Under Illinois law, a court may not impose a sentence that requires a defendant to be injected or implanted with birth control. “Castration is a form of birth control, so it can’t be done under Illinois statute,” Clark said.
No state allows surgical castration, although four states– California, Florida, Georgia and Montana–enacted laws this year allowing chemical castration for some child-sex offenders. Texas allows voluntary chemical castration for parolees.
But there is no definitive medical evidence to suggest castration works to prevent sexual crimes, said Domeena C. Renshaw, professor of psychiatry at Loyola University Chicago and director of the Loyola Sexual Dysfunction Clinic.
“We wished it would work, but the problem is, it doesn’t,” Renshaw said. “Judges and lawmakers have been recommending this since 1905–since the beginning of surgery.”
Rape is a crime of rage, stemming not only from hormones but from the “wiring of the mind,” Renshaw said.
And indeed, rapists are not a homogeneous group, Renshaw said. “We don’t have good treatment in psychiatry–that’s why we put (rapists) in jail,” Renshaw said.
Studies conducted over the years in Scandinavia and Europe have produced varied findings on whether castration works on sex offenders. Recidivism is reduced by between 3 percent and 70 percent, depending on the study.
That is a huge gap and proves nothing, Renshaw insisted. Further, sexual voyeurs and exhibitionists were included in the studies, skewing the results even more.
“There are as yet no convincing scientific studies,” Renshaw said.
No one has been ordered castrated under the California law, but ACLU attorneys say they plan to challenge it.
“This bill has huge holes in it,” said Valery Small Navarro, legislative advocate for the ACLU in California. “There’s no evidence that forcibly chemically castrating someone will actually work, especially for someone who is not motivated by sexual urges.”
The ACLU also opposes the California law on constitutional grounds, saying the injection of the powerful drug Depo-Provera, which affects testosterone levels, produces side effects that constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Ron Low, a spokesman for California Gov. Pete Wilson, said castration gives law enforcement one more tool in reducing sex offenses.
“If we can prevent just one child from being a victim of a molestation . . . then chemical castration has worked,” Low said. “Child molesters have one of the highest recidivism rates among serious felons, and they can’t stop because they have a compulsion to do what they do. Chemical castration is a common-sense step toward eliminating the sick impulse among our most dangerous criminals.”
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Paul Wharton, Morse’s Chicago attorney, noted that castration has been shown to work in some cases, and added that because his client was not accused of physical violence, he would be a good candidate.
“Nothing in the law says you can’t do it,” Wharton said. “My client is basically saying three things in this motion: A. `I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in jail’; B. `As an alleged child molester, I don’t think my life expectancy would be very long in prison’; and C. `I don’t want anyone in the world to believe that I have the physical ability to do harm to any child. If the court would allow it, I would give up my sexuality.’ “
Morse, 30, was arrested March 11 in St. Charles after he allegedly approached a 9-year-old girl and tried to lure her into his car. Police said Morse was naked from the waist down and was holding a toy gun. Under questioning, Morse confessed to forcing a 10-year-old Algonquin girl to fondle him at gunpoint in 1996, officials said. Morse is also under investigation for similar crimes in Elk Grove Village and Schaumburg, police said.
In his motion, Morse said he had been considering castration for two years. He said he wanted the judge to consider his offer as mitigation in the event that he reaches a plea agreement with prosecutors or is convicted.
“No judge in his right mind would agree to that,” said Ron Allen, a professor of criminal law at Northwestern University. “We’d be getting into a situation where we’re trading body parts for benefits, and that’s going to strike everybody as gruesome or reprehensible.”