Troy Ray Bennett entered into a non-negotiated guilty plea on 24 counts of sexual exploitation of a child based upon his replication of sexually explicit images involving young children. The trial court sentenced Bennett to 220 years to serve, followed by 20 years of probation. The trial court also ordered that Bennett undergo medroxyprogesterone acetate injections, or chemical castration, as a condition of his probation. On appeal from his guilty plea, Bennett argues that the length of his sentence is unlawful and violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and that the imposition of chemical castration as a condition of his probation violates Georgia law. He further asserts that his trial counsel was ineffective and that the trial court committed error during the plea hearing and the hearing on his motion for an out-of-time appeal. We find that the trial court’s order that Bennett undergo chemical castration as a condition of probation was erroneous, since this case did not involve a conviction on aggravated child molestation; we therefore vacate that special condition. We affirm the trial court’s ruling in all other respects. During the plea hearing, Bennett admitted to the following facts. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant for Bennett’s residence based upon information that he had sent suspicious photographs of two young girls over the internet to someone located in Ireland. During the search, the officers seized the hard drive of Bennett’s computer and various compact discs that he had created. It was later determined that Bennett possessed nearly 11,000 sexually explicit photographs involving minor children. The digital material had been downloaded onto his computer hard drive and/or the compact discs over a period of two to four years. At least several of the images had been taken from a camera that was identical as far as the make and model to Bennett’s camera that was seized during the search. The officers also collected approximately 50 printed sexually explicit photographs containing children near Bennett’s bed, as well as little girls’ underwear and socks. DNA material gleaned from the socks matched that of Bennett.
Bennett was evaluated by two different psychologists and readily admitted that he was a pedophile. He further admitted that he had a fetish for little girls’ feet.
