FL- Sex Offender wants title dropped

6-14-2009 Florida:

Virgil McCranie and his wife Misty have been married for ten years.
They have four kids, but it hasn't' been a fairy-tale marriage.

"I was drinking one night and things just kind of happened," McCranie said.

That was before the couple was married. Virgil was 19, misty was 14.

The teens had a falling out, Misty's father pressed charges, and McCranie was charged with rape. He pled no contest to lewd and lascivious behavior with a child as part of his plea deal.

But the plea deal also included him being classified as a registered sex offender. 15-years-later he's still carries the label.

"I ended up violating my probation for monetary reasons. Once I did that I fell into the august 12, 1998 Meagan’s law," McCranie said.

For the last six years, he's been trying to get the state clemency board to pardon his conviction. He and his wife Misty were in Tallahassee Thursday pleading their case in front of Governor Charlie Crist.

"I just want a chance to be a regular person again," McCranie said.

McCranie says there are a lot of bad people on the sex offender’s website but he says he isn't one of them

"I'm not a monster. I don't belong on this list," McCranie said.

"You know everybody makes mistakes. I make mistakes. Virgil makes mistakes. It's just a matter of paying for these same mistakes," Misty McCranie said.

McCranie is now 34. He says he understands the law, but believes his circumstances don't fit the punishment.

"I guess if you meet someone for one second, sometimes you already know that's who you are going to love for the rest of your life. You know we've known each other a while before that ever happened," McCranie said.

"We certainly deserve a chance at life," Misty added.

McCranie says he walked away from Thursday's clemency hearing with hope. Hope the state will grant him the title of loving husband and father rather than a sexual offender.

The clemency board is taking McCranie's case under advisement and could make a decision at the next clemency board meeting. ..Source.. by Josh Gauntt