Earlier today, a Fulton County Superior Court judge sentenced a former Georgia Tech professor to 10 years probation following his conviction on 76 counts of possessing child pornography.
Faiz Al-Khayyal was convicted following a jury trial in February. At the sentencing hearing, the defense presented the testimony of Dr. Kevin Baldwin of the Highland Institute in Atlanta. Dr. Baldwin testified that he conducted a psychosexual evaluation on Al-Khayyal and determined that he suffers from an addiction to computer pornography.
Baldwin believed that with treatment, his condition could be controlled and that his likelihood to re-offend would be low. He stated that he believed that Al-Khayyal was motivated for treatment. Al-Khayyal’s defense attorney pointed out that the conduct giving rise to the conviction occurred close to 12 years ago—referring to the actual downloading of the pornography files.
The State argued that the defendant should be sentenced to prison. Judge T. Jackson Bedford agreed with the defense that Al-Khayyal was a good candidate for probation and concluded that several years of specific sex offender treatment would be more beneficial than prison and provided a better likelihood that he will be rehabilitated.
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