A former Alabama high school teacher has been sentenced to 10 years behind bars for having sex with two of her former students. Carrie Cabri Witt, 47, claimed it was her “constitutional right” to have sex with the male students while teaching history, psychology, and social studies at Decatur High School in 2016 but was convicted of deviant sexual intercourse with a student under the age of 19 anyway.
- Witt insisted her relationship with the boys was totally legit. She pointed out that the age of consent in Alabama is 16 and that she was only being prosecuted because she worked at a school. Her lawyer claimed that the law that ultimately convicted her – the one against sexual relationships between students and teachers – was against Witt’s 14th Amendment rights to equal protection and privacy.
- She very nearly got away with it. A Morgan County Circuit Court judge agreed with Witt’s lawyers in 2017 that the law was unconstitutional and threw out the case against her. However, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed that ruling and sent the case back to court, which is how we got to this point.
- Witt ultimately pleaded guilty in March 2021. She admitted to one count of a school employee engaging in a sex act with a student under the age of 19. However, this deal with prosecutors came without a sentence agreement and she could have spent up to 20 years in prison.
- She probably won’t spend much time in jail, if any. While she will have to register as a sex offender, Witt spent 18 months behind bars and 18 months in a community corrections program, according to WAAY. The rest of her time will likely be spent on probation.
