Genarlow Wilson Released! Yes, Sometimes We Win
Posted On Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at at 9:58 AM by Dan
This reported in the Associated Press. Makes for a good week.
Ga Court: Release Man Jailed in Sex Case
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of a young man who has been imprisoned for more than two years for having consensual oral sex with another teenager.
The court ruled 4-3 that the 10-year sentence Genarlow Wilson received was cruel and unusual punishment, and it directed a lower court to reverse the conviction and release him.
Wilson's lawyer, B.J. Bernstein, said she expected Wilson would be released Friday afternoon from the Al Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, Ga.
"His mother is just thrilled. We're all in a little bit of shock," Bernstein said.
Wilson, 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation following a 2003 New Year's Eve party at a Douglas County hotel room where he was videotaped having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl. He was 17 at the time.
Wilson was acquitted of raping another 17-year-old girl at the party.
The 1995 law Wilson violated was changed in 2006 to make oral sex between teens close in age a misdemeanor, similar to the law regarding teen sexual intercourse. But the state Supreme Court later upheld a lower court's ruling which said that the 2006 law could not be applied retroactively.
Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the majority opinion that the changes in the law "represent a seismic shift in the legislature's view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants."
Sears wrote that the severe punishment makes "no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment" and that Wilson's crime did not rise to the "level of adults who prey on children."
State Attorney General Thurbert Baker said he accepts Friday's ruling.
Baker said he hopes the ruling will "put an end to this issue as a matter of contention in the hearts and minds of concerned Georgians and others across the country who have taken such a strong interest in this case."
The man who prosecuted Wilson, Douglas County District Attorney David McDade, said that while he disagrees with the court's decision, "I also must respect their authority as the final arbiter in this case."
Wilson's supporters were jubilant.
"It's been a long time coming," said U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an Atlanta Democrat. "Each day that this young man spent in prison was a day too long."
Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who is visiting Georgia this week, called for an end to mandatory minimum prison sentences.
State lawmakers announced they had raised $4,000 toward a scholarship fund for Wilson, and Jackson promised another $5,000 from the Rainbow/PUSH organization.
The state Supreme Court had turned down Wilson's appeal of his conviction and sentence, but the justices agreed to hear the state's appeal of a Monroe County judge's decision to reduce Wilson's sentence to 12 months and free him. That judge had called the 10-year sentence a "grave miscarriage of justice."
Dissenting justices wrote that the state Legislature expressly stated that the 2006 change in the law was not intended to affect any crime prior to that date.
They said Wilson's sentence could not be cruel and unusual because the state Legislature decided that Wilson could not benefit from subsequent laws reducing the severity of the crime from a felony to a misdemeanor.
They called the decision an "unprecedented disregard for the General Assembly's constitutional authority."
Associated Press writers Dorie Turner in Atlanta and Ben Evans in Washington contributed to this story.
Genarlow Wilson to be Released?
Posted On Friday, October 26, 2007 at at 1:05 PM by Dan
I just saw someone on CNN referring to Wilson ordered released. I don't know if this is true yet, or what the details are. One can only hope that this tragedy has finally come to an end.
More details on Wilson case available at www.wilsonappeal.com.
More info on Genarlow Wilson case
Posted On Tuesday, September 04, 2007 at at 4:37 PM by Dan
This is from last weekend's Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Find out more about Genarlow Wilson by following the link on the sidebar under Struggles to Watch.
Wilson closer to fateful ruling
In teen-sex case, state's high court must see 10 years in prison is cruel, unusual
Published on: 09/02/07 at the AJC
During the Georgia Supreme Court hearing on the Genarlow Wilson case, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears asked a pertinent question:
"Where is the justice?"
Georgians may soon learn the answer to that question. The high court is expected to rule this month on whether Wilson's 10-year sentence for oral sex with a willing younger teen constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Wilson was convicted of engaging in oral sex with a classmate at a wild 2003 New Year's Eve party in Douglasville; he was 17, the girl was 15. That age difference allowed prosecutors to charge Wilson with aggravated child molestation, which by a temporary quirk in Georgia law at the time carried a mandatory 10-year sentence that cannot be commuted by the parole board or the governor.
A year after Wilson's conviction in 2005, the Legislature changed the rules for sex acts between consenting teens by passing what's known as the "Romeo and Juliet" provision. Under that law, an act of oral sex between Wilson and the younger teen would be a misdemeanor punishable by no more than 12 months in jail. However, lawmakers didn't apply the change retroactively.
The case has since become an international blot on Georgia's legal system. Reputations have been sullied, communities divided and a young man locked behind bars for two-and-a-half years so far.
No one believes that Wilson, now 21, belongs in prison any longer, even the prosecutors in Douglas County who put him there. Their initial objective had been to convict Wilson on a rape charge for an act of sexual intercourse with another girl at the party, a 17-year-old who later contended that she had been too inebriated to consent to sex.
Jurors, however, exonerated Wilson of that charge. But given the facts of the case and the wording of state law at the time, they felt compelled to convict him on the charge of aggravated child molestation because of the age difference of the two teens.
Wilson has been offered a plea bargain that would release him from jail, an offer that still stands. However, he has rejected that option because under state law he would still be categorized as a sex offender, with serious consequences for his future.
As a result, Wilson sits in the Burruss Correctional Training Center in Monroe County and waits for the Supreme Court's verdict. A lower court has already ruled in his favor, concluding that a mandatory 10-year term constituted cruel and unusual punishment for a relatively minor crime.
"The fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanor ... and will spend eight more years in prison is a grave miscarriage of justice," Monroe County Superior Court Thomas Wilson ruled.
The case could have ended there, but Attorney General Thurbert Baker chose to appeal the judge's ruling to the Supreme Court. At a hearing in July, some justices seemed to be struggling with how to reconcile existing case law — which says 10 years is not a shocking sentence for such a crime — with their clear discomfort over Wilson's fate.
"Today, that crime is a misdemeanor," said Sears, asking again, "Where is the justice?"
"That is not for the habeas court to determine," responded Senior Assistant Attorney General Paula K. Smith. She argued that Wilson was convicted under the old law and must suffer the punishment in effect then, regardless of the Legislature's subsequent downgrading of the punishment.
The state's contention that the court has no choice but to uphold the previous law struck another justice as unreasonable.
"Should we do that at the expense of fundamental fairness?" asked Justice Robert Benham.
The answer, Your Honor, is that you must not.
— Maureen Downey, for the editorial board (mdowney@ajc.com)
GENARLOW WILSON UPDATE
Posted On Thursday, June 14, 2007 at at 12:11 PM by Dan
The most recent AJC article is just crazy. The mother of the girl Wilson is convicted of molesting came out and said Wilson’s conviction is unfair. Following this was a furious back and forth between the mother, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Douglas County District Attorney’s office. Frankly, I believe it’s a shameful display of the DA’s use of power. Criminal justice policy in the US is too often controlled by the DA’s, and they aren’t worthy of having that kind of power. Check out the AJC article: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2007/06/13/0614metwilson.html
Also related to the Wilson case, state attorney general Thurbert Baker is a punk. Within one hour of Wilson’s release being ordered, Baker said the state would appeal. Why? Because Baker is a gutless throwaway politician too scared of the good ol’ boy system to apply common sense. At least, that’s my theory. You can read Baker’s own words from his response to the AJC opinion. Baker says he’s just following orders, but he really tried to work it out with the defense attorneys. They refused everything. Why should they have taken the offer? Wilson was convicted of a felony that is now considered a misdemeanor. The judge said it should be considered a misdemeanor, but Baker and the Douglas DA want Wilson to stick to a felony. How is this a deal?
Time to dump Baker. Remember that at the polls.
And for you Douglas County residents, perhaps voting “No” for district attorney wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
For more info about the Wilson case check out these sites:
Wilson Appeal
ESPN feature
Recent ABC news article
Atlanta Magazine article
New York Times article
Wikipedia entry
GENARLOW WILSON SHOULDN’T BE IN PRISON
Posted On Saturday, February 03, 2007 at at 4:08 PM by Dan
It’s starting to be pretty common in Georgia. Imprisoning young Black men for sex, I mean. There was the Marcus Dixon case. Just recently there’s Willie Williams, but his case is really more than 20 years old. Now I’ve learned about Genarlow Wilson.
Wilson was 17 years old when he attended a party that would make Hugh Heffner blush. I’m talking the 1970’s Heffner too. Wilson was videotaped having sex with a 17-year old girl as well as receiving oral sex from a 15-year old girl. The 17 year old was apparently drunk and may have been high as well during the act. Media sites consistently point out she never says stop during the video, but they don’t mention she may have not been in a state of mind to consent. We can absolutely say that Wilson is not guilty of raping her because there was a trial and Wilson was found not guilty. Personally, I think the standards of what constitutes rape in the US is far too lax. Even so, Wilson is not in prison for rape. He’s in prison for child molestation.
Yeah, you read that right. The jury that acquitted him of rape came back with a guilty verdict for child molestation because Wilson is clearly seen receiving oral sex from a 15 year old. They didn’t want to do it, but felt they had no choice. He was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years with no parole. He’ll be classified as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Wilson wasn’t the only one charged that night, but he was the only one to go to trial. The others took plea agreements, and if Wilson had he wouldn’t be facing as much time. Last year the Georgia legislature passed HB 1059, a bill it called the Child Sexual Predator legislation. I call it the “Rep. Jerry Keen wants to be on Fox news” legislation. The bill was just stupid, you can see for yourself at the Fairness for Prisoners’ Families site on it. One part of the bill, however, did reclassify what Wilson was convicted of from a felony to a misdemeanor. It’s not retroactive though.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Wilson and others are stuck with Georgia’s horrific legislation and a 300-year history of white supremacy. The result is that a 17-year old is now considered a child molester. Of course, 85% of child molestation is done by someone close to the child (i.e. not a stranger). Something all of the laws mentioned seem to try real hard to not consider. One would think that laws allegedly aimed at ending child molestation would consider these facts.
Crazy, isn’t it?
For more info about the Wilson case check out these sites:
Wilson Appeal
ESPN feature
Recent ABC news article
Atlanta Magazine article
New York Times article
Wikipedia entry
