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.
Check my profile if you're so curious.
My apologies.
Thank you.
He!! that's half the US jail population. ;)
Guy, I have to go to bed.
Night!
Well good night then. :)
“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. “
I think you’re just throwing that out hoping nobody’s going to call you on it. If you check I think you’ll find that the age of legal consent in most states is 16.
I have a friend, in every other way an excellent human being, incarcerated for the past eight months awaiting a court decision for having evidence of perusing images of underage models on his computer. No hanging out in playgrounds, no evidence or history of ever touching a kid - yet there he is having the last years of his emphysemic life robbed from him on our tax dollar. Even more ironic - his cardio-pulmonary disease rendered him impotent several years back. His problem is a conscienceless District Attorney wanting to use him as an example of “cracking down on sex offenders” while the guy’s real crime is trusting a repair shop to fix his crashed computer without realizing computer shops are coerced by the government to spy out easy prey for them.
Meanwhile false reverends like Sharpton try to drum up sympathy for actual predators/idiots. While I don’t condone my friend’s lack of taste I can’t see why he’s railroaded like this while legal resources and our tax monies are better spent on actual dangers to our youth. This DA is using the letter of the law to further his career at the expense of justice...and it doesn’t matter if an ignorant citizen has to spend the last of his life locked away for no sensible reason. It’s a small sin to pay for a possible governorship!
It’s my friend’s fault for not being Pete Townsend (who was involved with actual underage sex rings but let off for being Pete Townsend). Yes, England is different but I know money, fame and influence work the same everywhere. If my friend was a danger I would have either turned him in myself or dealt with it in a Three-S way. I have absolutely no sympathy for child rapists “driven” to suicide by sign postings. I do have a problem with a culture that incarcerates physically terminal people getting screwed by abuse of the law.
That goes for cancer patients who use marijuana to deal with chemotherapy, too.
To you and others who defend Genarlow here, and to the Rev. Al Sharpton as well, irresponsible sexual behavior is no big deal - and certainly causes society no great harm. But Genarlow and his crew are living proof that you are wrong. Even in 21st century America, after all, most young people would not ring in the New Year by holding a drunken orgy with drugged-up minors. Someone would have taught them better, and that someone would most likely be a FATHER.
But fathers are mighty scarce in the Genarlow story. Neither he and his friends nor the girls at the New Years orgy seem to have them. They have mothers, of course--the indignant mothers of the girls, who called on the police to defend their daughters' honor, and the mothers of the boys, who keep showing up at photo ops to bewail their sons' diminished prospects for the future. But there are no dads on the scene because in a community which has lost its standards of sexual responsibility, the only real fathering that takes place is the kind of thing gangsta punks do at orgies. (In fact, the 15-year-old who "serviced" Genarlow became a single mom several months after the New Years revel.)
I don't think many people believe keeping Genarlow in prison is doing much to address the community crisis in which he and his friends played a part. But letting him off the hook--because it's "only sex, after all"--would also send the wrong message. That's why the DA in the case continues to offer Genarlow the chance for a reduced sentence. If he had any inkling of how to act like a man, instead of an overgrown mama's boy, he would take that chance.
Yes, but the law he was convicted of breaking was unjust and stupid, which is why the legislature has subsequently repealed that law.
Genarlow Wilson was charged with rape, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, aggravated sodomy and aggravated child molestation.
And he could have been charged with plotting to blow up the moon -- the more important fact is that he was acquitted of most of those charges.
There were six men with 40 prior arrests among them in a hotel room with a semi-conscious girl and a minor.
1. Genarlow Wilson was 17 years old. He wasn't a "man."
2. How many of those 40 prior arrests were of Genarlow Wilson?
This is guilt by association of the sleaziest sort. You should really be ashamed of yourself.
This can’t be, as the MSM never/ever mentioned this slight twist in the story. Fry each of the swinging dicks.
“One of the men impregnated a 12-year-old while awaiting trial”
Make this horses ass turn large rocks into small ones, while on prime time TV, 24x7. Make him an example.
I know, never happen, but it would....if I were The President.
This kid is really getting a raw deal & the prosecutor needs to have his ass kicked for being a jerk. I've been saying that a lot these days...
They rewrote the law. They did NOT make it retroactive. They could have and chose not to.
And he could have been charged with plotting to blow up the moon -- the more important fact is that he was acquitted of most of those charges.
He was convicted based on HIS tape.
Genarlow Wilson was 17 years old. He wasn't a "man."
He was having gangbang sex like he thought he was a man. In the eyes of the law, he was a man. A JURY found him guilty.
How many of those 40 prior arrests were of Genarlow Wilson?
Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas.
This is guilt by association of the sleaziest sort. You should really be ashamed of yourself.
You should be ashamed for trying to whitewash this guy. SIX guys USING 2 girls. Alcohol, drugs..........what an UPSTANDING man he is! /sarc
Again, he has been convicted by a jury. HOWEVER, he has been offered a plea deal which he won't take because he wants to be declared innocent. He is not innocent.
Really. When two kids (or two drunk people) boink, who's raping whom? It's always the guy that gets in trouble.
You said: It was consensual and she was only two years younger than him.
***
I think that is the major issue in this case. Eveyone says it was consensual, but if she was 15, did she have the ability to consent? The law in Georgia said no. What if she were 14? 12? 10? If she “consented” at those ages would your feelings be the same? She may have been a very worldly girl, but are we going to let that be the determining factor. Please note— MY feelings are likely swayed by the fact that I have a 15 year old daughter. This guy would not be serving a 10-year sentence if she had obtained my daughter’s consent to do what he got the other girl to do. In fact, it is likely that he would never have been arrested, tried or convicted...
When I was younger, 15 yr olds were called “jailbait” not party favors. I have zero sympathy for these guys.
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