The chemical knife

Will Tennessee be the next state to approve castration for sex offenders?

By Kevin Giordano

Mar 1, 2000 | On Jan. 8, Shannon Coleman, a convicted sex offender, circumvented a 21-year prison term by agreeing to be chemically castrated. A self-described sex addict, Coleman had used the Internet to strike up chats with two Florida girls. He managed to visit one, a 12-year-old, at her house, where he fondled her and then masturbated. The other, a 15-year-old, invited him over to her house, where they had sex.

At his trial, Coleman, his lawyer and his psychiatrist, Fred Berlin, seized upon Florida's 1997 sex offender law, which gives the court discretion to sentence people convicted of sexual battery to undergo drug treatment to stop and/or reduce testosterone production. With help from Berlin, Coleman was able to trade prison time for a life under the chemical "knife." (Coleman admitted in court that he had a sex addiction, was labeled a pedophile and pleaded guilty to six felony charges, including child molestation.)

Jack Orsley, Coleman's lawyer, says that Berlin was instrumental in getting his client help, not to mention out of prison. "Because of the Florida law and Fred Berlin, we used it as an alternative," Orsley says. "The thing is, Coleman is motivated."

Once referred to as a form of mutilation by the American Civil Liberties Union, a reference to the Eighth Amendment to the Bill of Rights (which says, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted"), chemical castration is slowly gaining ground throughout the country as a means of sentencing and treating sex offenders.

Tennessee is currently debating whether to adopt a bill that would make it the ninth state with a law governing the use of the drug medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), which acts as a sexual suppressant. "There's been a heightened recognition of sex offenses," says Berlin, referring to the "two strikes, you're out" Child Protection Act of 1999, which says repeat sex offenders get life in prison, and "Megan's Law," which requires that sex offenders be registered with local authorities and the FBI upon release from incarceration.

Says Berlin, founder of the sexual disorders clinic at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland: Such laws are "likely to progress to other states, after they establish committees to advise legislators."

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State Sen. Tim Burchett, at 35 the youngest member of the Tennessee Senate, is sponsoring the bill that would make the use of drugs such as Depo-Provera and Depo-Lupron an optional part of a convicted person's sentence. "Part of the problem is just the name 'castration,'" Burchett says. "I hear the jokes and talk, it doesn't bother me. If you've ever talked to a mother whose daughter or son has been raped, you'd never question my reasons."

Burchett's steadfast efforts to bring up the bill began in earnest four years ago when he was in the state House. The committee considering the bill was undecided and deferred it, but assisted Burchett in drafting new versions. "Castration was something we needed to look at," Burchett says. "Everyone assumed it was some kind of mutilation, but it doesn't have anything to do with mutilation. It's just a form of treatment."

In 1996, California became the first state to pass a measure known as a chemical castration law, which requires chemical castration of any person found guilty a second time of specified sex offenses. Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Montana, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin followed shortly thereafter with similar laws. Dr. Mark Graff of the California Psychiatric Association is wary of this trend and says the California measure was intended to be harsh. The law "gives an illusion of protection because its punitive 'castrate 'em and hang-'em-up model' attracts legislators," Graff says. "This was no attempt to rehabilitate people."

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