Posted on 06/11/2007 1:30:37 PM PDT by MinimizeGovernment
A judge has ordered that Genarlow Wilson be freed from prison, where he has spent more than two years for receiving consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.
Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson also amended Wilson's felony conviction this morning to a misdemeanor without the requirement that he register as a sex offender.
Wilson's lawyer, B.J. Bernstein, appealed to the judge Wednesday to free him from prison, arguing that his 10-year prison sentence and inclusion on the state's sex offender registry is grossly disproportionate and violates the Constitution.
Bernstein also pointed to how the Legislature changed the law last year to make similar acts a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison. Wilson, now 21, has been locked up for more than two years.
Judge Wilson agreed the 10-year prison sentence "would be viewed by society as 'cruel and unusual' in the Constitutional sense of disproportionality."
"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," Wilson wrote in his order, which was released this morning.
"If any case fits into the definitive limits of a miscarriage of justice, surely this case does."
Wilson added, "If this court, or any court, cannot recognize the injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish... Justice being served in a fair and equal matter."
Attorney General Thurbert Baker's office filed a notice to appeal the judge's order this afternoon, saying Wilson has "absolutely no authority to change the judgment of the trial court, in this case the Superior Court of Douglas County."
The attorney general's office disclosed that as recently as this past weekend Douglas County offered Wilson's attorneys a plea deal that would have allowed Wilson to avoid a criminal record and inclusion on the sex offender registry once his sentence had been completed. The plea deal would have also allowed Wilson to serve a "substantially shorter" prison sentence, possibly leading to his "release based upon time already served."
Wilson, through his attorneys, refused those offers.
Wilson's attorney was not immediately available to respond to those assertions.
Monday afternoon, several civil rights leaders, including Joseph E. Lowery, the co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Janice Mathis, regional vice president of Rainbow PUSH, announced they will be holding a 5 p.m. press conference outside Baker's downtown office calling for his resignation unless he reconsiders the appeal.
Lowery said he placed a phone call to Baker trying to find out why the attorney general has decided to appeal the ruling, but he has not gotten a call back.
Lowery said he hadn't "the slightest idea" why Baker made his decision.
"That's why we're holding a press conference trying to determine whether it's poor judgment ... we don't know what it is," Lowery said. "We think if he had some political concerns, he ought to realize that the judge has already let him off the hook. The judge took responsibility and substituted justice for the gross injustice."
Lowery, in a press release written as an open letter to Baker, berated the attorney general for the immediate appeal.
"Go -- as our designated champion of law and justice -- and urge the courts to set this political prisoner free ... You are expected to be more than some robot obeying the whims (and errors) of some heartless machine," wrote Lowery.
Paula K. Smith, senior assistant attorney general, opposed Wilson's petition. She told the judge Wednesday the change in law does not apply to Wilson's case.
"The General Assembly passed a statute. They did not make it retroactive," Smith said. "It was their prerogative to do so. They did not. The courts of Georgia have not."
A Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman said Wilson would "ideally" be released from prison within the next 48 hours, though it is unclear whether an appeal from the attorney general's office would delay his release.
"He will be released as expeditiously as policy allows," said Tracy J. Smith, the department's spokeswoman. "Ideally, we are looking at a 48-hour window."
Juannessa Bennett, Genarlow Wilson's mother, shared her reaction to the judge's order with reporters today.
"I just feel like a miracle happened," she told The Associated Press, adding that her son appeared hopeful when she spoke to him yesterday. "He was on hands on knees."
Bernstein appeared at Bennett's side.
"This is a nonviolent offense," Bernstein said. "It was consensual teenage sex. There is no way that it could be anything other than a misdemeanor now."
Wilson was originally charged with raping a 17-year-old at a party on New Year's Eve of 2003, but he was acquitted. He was ultimately found guilty of aggravated child molestation involving the 15-year-old girl. Four other male youths at the party pleaded guilty to child molestation of the 15-year-old and sexual battery of the 17-year-old. A fifth pleaded guilty to false imprisonment.
Their party was captured on a profanity-laden and sexually graphic video filmed by one of the male youths. The video shows Wilson having intercourse with the 17-year-old and receiving oral sex from the 15-year-old. Wilson's appeal was filed in Forsyth because he is being held there in the Burruss Correctional Training Center. The state attorney general's office is representing Burruss's warden in the appeal.
Wilson's case has attracted national media attention, from TV shows "Good Morning America" to "The O'Reilly Factor." Several influential people have gone to bat for him, including former President Jimmy Carter. Carter wrote Attorney General Thurbert Baker last month in support of Wilson's petition, citing the "disproportionate nature" of his punishment.
Matt Towery, a Republican House member from 1993 to 1997, said today it was never his intent to lock up teenagers involved in consensual sex acts when he authored the Child Protection Act in 1995. The bill was intended to crack down on child molesters, but it was amended in the Senate, Towery said, to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16 --- meaning consensual sex acts with a 15-year-old could result in prison terms usually reserved for armed robbers and kidnappers.
"Needless to say I think justice was done today," Towery said. "This has been just an absolute nightmare to see young people such as Genarlow go to jail -- compounded by prosecutors and people lobbying - using videotapes and everything in the world - to try to keep him in jail."
Towery also argued the attorney general's office should "reconsider any effort to appeal. This intent is absolutely solid. And this is a misinterpretation of the intent of the Legislature."
State Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said he worries about the legal precedent the judge set today by freeing Wilson from prison. Johnson fought an effort in the Legislature this year that would have allowed a judge to modify Wilson's sentence along with many others who were convicted of certain felony consensual sex crimes between teenagers. That bill failed.
"We have all said that was a harsh sentence," Johnson said of Wilson's 10-year prison sentence. "The precedent of this is what I'm concerned about."
"The Georgia Supreme Court already ruled on the Constitutionality of some of this," Johnson added. "I don't know if this was a politically correct judge that is just throwing it back into the courts."
Just my opinion, but if I was sentenced to 10 years for each offense when I was 17, I'd still be there. And Bill Clinton would have gotten life!
Good luck and prayers to you that this injustice never happens again. The jury were obviously biased or we don’t have enough information. 10 years for something that happens everyday is just not right. The South will have to learn from the North about justice sometime. lol.
Well, it looks like Wilson picked the right lawyer.
“Wilson’s lawyer, B.J. Bernstein,”
Wow, it just writes itself...
“lawyer, B.J. Bernstein”
You have to be kidding!
In fairness, though, “Genarlow” does sound like an STD...
Right, no legislating from the bench BJ.
“And Bill Clinton would have gotten life!”
You say that like it would be a bad thing
It’s a shame the kids has to register as a sex offender. I’d fight that if I was the defense lawyer.
Yet another ,even longer previous thread here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1848418/posts
I was never so fortunate when I was 17, but it was not for the lack of trying. However, today’s generation must have a completely different set of experiences. After all, they have been taught in school since Kindergarten that this behavior is perfectly acceptable, with either sex. And, the President of the United States (once removed) told the nation that this was quite all right. Turns out that the nation’s children were listening.
“10 yrs may be too much but this is not some angel that has been discriminated against by whitey....”
BTTT
I believe there was more to this case than just the BJ, if memory serves the D.A. used the video that his friends were making of the act to charge him with rape of another girl that they were getting on video. This creep was way out of control, and although he got prosecuted for the statutory rape I believe that this was a plea bargain down to a lesser charge if memory serves.
That blows.
Oh my!
For those of you without sin, cast the first stone.
Thank you both for providing more evidence that the case is not what it seems. Sometimes I like to give young kids the benefit of the doubt, but in this case he may not deserve that.
“Genarlow” - isn’t that “Dutch-Irish”?
When I first read about this, I assumed that they were talking about homosexual sex. It didn’t even occur to me that conscensual oral sex could be against the law or heterosexuals. There are an awful lot of kids that would be in jail right now if this was the law in the rest of the country. I don’t think that I even bothered reading the whole article.
Just think of all those young kids that were claiming that oral sex isn’t really sex at all.
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