The push for criminal justice reform on Beacon Hill has hit a road bump. Tucked within the bill is a small, yet controversial proposal that would change how the state prosecutes sex-related crimes between teenagers. Right now, a person under 16 cannot consent to sex — period. In essence, if a 17-year-old has sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend, he’s committed a crime and could have to register as a sex offender for life. The new provision, informally known as the “Romeo and Juliet” provision would change that. Jim Braude is joined by Wendy Murphy, a women and children’s advocate and law professor at New England Law in Boston, and Sen. William Brownsberger (D-Belmont), who is sponsoring the criminal justice reform bill.
Yet again, President Trump has trashed his predecessors in an attempt to burnish his own reputation. In a press conference yesterday, he passed the buck for waiting to contact the families of soldiers killed in Niger by falsely claiming that past presidents did not reach out to Gold Star families at all. Could this habit of shifting blame put the reputation of the Oval Office at risk? Jennifer Braceras, a conservative columnist and former editor at The New Boston Post, and Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College, joined Jim Braude to discuss.
Jim explains we may all be guilty of something we have criticized Donald Trump for — losing focus on the crisis in Puerto Rico.
