Posted on 07/05/2007 6:08:06 PM PDT by Daffynition
The Rev. Al Sharpton embraced the mother and sister of a man serving a 10-year sentence for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old, joining hundreds of supporters Thursday demanding his immediate release from prison.
Genarlow Wilson has been in prison for two years for taking part in the sex act when he was 17 years old.
"This boy is not only her son, he's your son, he's my son," Sharpton told the cheering crowd from the steps of the Douglas County Courthouse. "We're here today because what affects you affects all of us."
State Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan said Wilson's punishment was excessive and should be reduced, just like the prison sentence for former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, which was commuted Monday by President Bush.
"Genarlow is the face of many other young black men who have received injustice," Thomas Morgan said. "Somebody's got to stand up for them."
The crowd held signs that read "Free Genarlow" and "Justice Now." The issues of race and class came up in many speeches.
"If he had a different complexion and a different connection, we wouldn't be here," Sharpton said.
Wilson, now 21, is serving a 10-year mandatory sentence for aggravated child molestation stemming from a 2003 New Year's Eve Party where he was captured on videotape receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl. The law has since been changed by Georgia lawmakers, but the state's top court said the new law could not be applied retroactively.
Wilson was also charged in 2003 with raping a 17-year-old girl at the party, but a jury acquitted him of the charges.
Five other male partygoers accepted plea deals in the case. Wilson rejected the plea offer.
On June 11, Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson ruled that Genarlow Wilson should be freed from prison and not listed on Georgia's sex offender registry. The judge called the 10-year mandatory sentence "a grave miscarriage of justice" that violated the constitution.
Attorney General Thurbert Baker immediately appealed that ruling, drawing criticism from civil rights activists.
The Georgia Supreme Court is set to hear the latest appeal in October. Wilson's lawyer, B.J. Bernstein, had sought to get Wilson released on bond while the appeal moved forward.
But Douglas County Superior Court Judge David Emerson said Wilson was ineligible for bond under Georgia law. Bernstein is appealing that decision.
If he were 25 or 30 it would be a different case, but he was only 17. In most states he would still be under the age of consent. The sentence I feel was over kill, as does the judge who overturned the sentence.
The other men took the plea deals. Wilson chose a trial and was convicted. The sentence was mandatory. AGAIN, even after conviction, he was offered a plea deal. He REFUSES. He wants to be declared innocent even though a jury found him guilty. Until he pleads guilty, he'll stay where he is. It's up to him.
AL is not right all that often but this time he is correct.
This guy is NOT innocent. He can get out by pleading guilty to what is on the tape. He won't. He's where he is by HIS CHOICE.
And you'd be incensed if it was an 18 yr old that took advantage of a "slow" 15 yr old.
This is NOT a choir boy. Hotel room, drugs, booze, one girl too drugged/drunk to know what's happening and one not bright enough to know she's being used. Stellar human you've chosen to champion.
Your neck is showing.
Nope. And I find your defense of this guy disgusting.
Play that race card, hustler.
He’s a ‘martyred saint’ to them. Imagine the culture that sees a ‘wannabe gangster’ as a saint. Oh yeah, same culture that views tupac and mumia as heroes.
A 15 yr old girl is not old enough to consent to anything. She's not old enough to drive, can't enter a legally binding contract, can't marry...........but you believe that she can "consent" to service 6 boys. Even though she was "slow". Can she "consent to have sex with a 20 yr old? 25? 30? 50?
This ain't Romeo and Juliette. It was 6 guys looking to get some. One girl was semi-conscious and one was "slow".
Again, he was ON TAPE but wants to be declared innocent. Even under the rewritten law he's guilty. He doesn't want to be guilty of a misdemeanor. He wants to be declcared INNOCENT. He's NOT.
AGAIN: 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.
The other guys pleaded guilty. This one thinks he's special.
Name them.
I believe that he should have been convicted of rape of the 17 yr old. They all should. They got away with it.
I'd give you more links but then I'd have to explain them.
And you didn’t answer. Can a 15 yr old consent to sex with a 20 yr old? 25? 30? 50?
Genarlow Wilson was also an honor student and a leader on his high school’s football team. He was headed to college.
Despite the fact that — by the legal definition — the 15-year-old girl could not consent to having oral sex with 17-year-old Wilson, the video makes it clear that she was acting of her own free will.
I don’t give a damn about Al Sharpton — Genarlow Wilson does NOT deserve 10 years in prison.
How about an answer to this?
The simple fact is that most of your claims seem to have legally disappeared in this case
I say again: Name them.
You didnt get laid in high school and you still harbor resentment maybe?
Insult. That last resort when losing.
Are you married? Dating? If so is he/she 2 years younger or older than you? TEN years in prison.
The age of consent is 16.
Why don't you answer the questions?
And you haven't addressed that he could be released if he'd take the plea bargain...........even after being convicted by a jury. But he won't.
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