Posted on 03/08/2006 4:24:41 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Feb. 7, 2006 — A wild New Year's Eve two years ago has landed a Georgia teen in prison for 10 years on charges of child molestation in a case that has state legislators reworking the strict law that put him behind bars.
Genarlow Wilson and a group of friends had the kind of bash no parent would want their teenager to attend. Crime scene investigators combing the room in a Days Inn in the small town of Douglasville, Ga., found evidence of drinking, as well as condoms and wrappers littered all over. Plus, there was a video camera.
In a portion of a tape obtained by "Primetime," Wilson, then 17 and an honor student and star athlete who was homecoming king, is seen having intercourse with a 17-year-old girl, who was seen earlier on the bathroom floor. During the sex act, she appears to be sleepy or intoxicated but never asks Wilson to stop. Later on in the tape, she is seen being pulled off the bed.
Other portions of the tape show a second girl, who was 15 and later said she did not drink that night. She was recorded having oral sex with several boys in succession, including Wilson.
The following morning, Wilson got a phone call that would change his life. He learned from a friend that the 17-year-old had gone to the police to report that she'd been raped.
"I was, like, 'What? When was this happening? Did this happen at the same party I was at?'" Wilson said. "It was shocking to me."
A Decade in Prison Authorities believed the 17-year-old alleged rape victim and said she was too intoxicated to consent to any sexual acts, which is what Georgia law requires, otherwise these acts can be considered rape.
Six boys, including Wilson, were arrested on various charges, including rape. District Attorney David McDade said the videotape was critical to his case. "There is no doubt that without the videotape we would have to be relying on the statements of these young people, and that would have been a more difficult prosecution," he said.
Wilson maintained his innocence. "I know that it was consensual," he told "Primetime." "I wouldn't went on with the acts if it wasn't consensual. I'm not that kind of person. No means no."
Five of the boys accepted plea deals, but Wilson -- the only one without a police record -- held out. "I knew Genarlow's state of mind," said his attorney, Michael Mann. "He wasn't going to prison willingly. He wasn't going to plea to something in his mind he didn't do."
He stood trial in February 2005 for five days. And at first, the jury's deliberations moved swiftly. Jurors voted to acquit Wilson of raping the 17-year-old.
"I mean it wasn't even an hour," said jury forewoman Marie Manigault. "We immediately saw the tape for what it was. We went back and saw it again and saw what actually happened and everybody immediately said not guilty."
But there was one other charge the jury had to decide on. The second girl in the videotape was 15, and the age of consent in Georgia is 16. And under state law, prosecutors charged Wilson with aggravated child molestation. To those close to the young man, it was an outrage.
"Nobody could believe that this is the law," Mann said.
Even jurors frowned on the charge. "A bad law, absolutely," Manigault said.
And in Georgia, that they'd had oral sex made matters worse. Until 1998, oral sex between husband and wife was illegal, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. In Wilson's case, even though he is only two years older than the girl, she was 15 and -- willing or not -- could not consent legally that night.
Whatever their feelings about the law, jurors felt they had no choice but to find Wilson guilty of aggravated child molestation. Moments later, back in the jury room, jurors were told for the first time that the conviction came with a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison. In addition, Wilson would be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
McDade said Wilson could have had a better outcome if he had accepted the plea deal. "What I believe is that Genarlow Wilson listened to people who were trying to use this case for another agenda and he followed their advice," he said. "Do I believe that [in] Genarlow Wilson's case justice would have been served if he accepted a lesser plea? Sure I do. I wish he had of. Sure I do."
'Doing What's Right' Before the incident, Wilson -- by any measure -- had beaten the odds. The son of a single mom, the high school senior was an honor student and an all-conference football player and track star, with offers to play in college. He was popular enough to be elected homecoming king at Douglas County High.
"I was the first-ever homecoming king at my high school," he said. "That was a very great privilege for me."
Atlanta attorney B.J. Bernstein has filed Wilson's appeal. She said prosecutors should never have brought charges and that justice should have been meted out at home.
And a state legislator who helped pass the molestation law said it was never meant to police teen sex.
"The legislative intent was to protect women and children from sexual predators," said Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a Democrat in the Georgia State Assembly.
As the court considers Wilson's appeal, the Georgia legislature is rewriting the law that sent Wilson to prison. In a bill that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate, the crime would become a misdemeanor, punishable by no more than a year in prison, or even probation. And anyone convicted would not have to register as a sex offender.
Today Wilson remains as steadfast as ever about not taking the deal that would have reduced his sentence by half.
"It's all about doing what's right," he said. "And what's right is right, and what's wrong is wrong. And I'm just standing up for what I believe in."
Go back to the old days, lower the age of consent to 14 (when most people are biologically post-pubescent) with the understanding that society is not to be financially responsible for any outcome.
It sickens me how we prolong "childhood" in this country. It used to be very common for folks to get married in their teens, if they weren't going to college.
I'm with you 100% on that! But the way I would do it would be alot more involved. I would like to re-haul our entire fluffy K-12 educational system...I would like to shave 3 years off of it by getting rid of the worthless self-esteem/sex-ed type crap, the ass-grab in the hallway etc. I would also like to see more progress on the homeschool front. We could also probably shave at least 1 year off of 4 year degrees, getting rid of the
If we could have children educated by 15, they could then attend college, meet their spouses, and start families the right way. They would avoid the prolonged 10+ year sexual repression from puberty until marriage (which virtually no one follows right now because it's impossible).
In this plan, if someone at age 15 or 16 wanted to stay at home with their parents while they comuted or telecommuted to college, than that's fine too becasue they would be done around 18 or 19, and ready to marry and move out of the house etc.
Please spare me any "be your child's friend" speeches. If we actually allowed our children to be children longer then they would learn responsibility BEFORE they entered an adult world.
Responsibility is learned in measures just like anything else in life. You give your children responsibility for chores and handling their allowances because that's a small step in learning and if they screw that up they don't get hurt and pay for it the rest of their life because you can correct it.
If you expect them to handle the responsibility of an adult world and they fail, then those mistakes can harm them for the rest of their life. This very instance is proof that these children were given more responsibility than they could handle. The problem is that there are too many adults out there who have children and the adults aren't responsible. They aren't teaching their children responsibility at a young age and then they throw them out there and this is the results.
Because they are unaware that they have the right (and the duty) to nullify the law in such cases. That's the whole point of having jury trials...not that any judge will ever advise them of that.
>>If we could have children educated by 15>>
Lowering the school age to 15 wouldn't have prevented the girl in this story from screwing around. It doesn't prevent the 12-year old girls from being whored 100 times (already!!!), so the school age won't work.
Get the rap crap out of pop culture, then make it mandatory for both parents to be equally involved in the kid's life (no using the kid as a pawn for more money), raise your kids yourself (no rental parents).
Unless and until more of us make society unwilling to pay for the stupidities of those we choose to feed, but not rule in their teenage years, nothing will change.
>>Please spare me any "be your child's friend" speeches.>>
It appears you misunderstood my tone and post. I am in opposition to being a child's friend. We are their parents, the rule makers, not their buddies.
However, expecting teenagers to learn responsibility over 6 years of care-free life doesn't work. Never has. They must be taught to be responsible BEFORE the day comes when the rets of their age is acting irresponsibly.
The post I made (in reply to Clemenza's) was more specific to 'having people become adults alot faster'. Fixing the educational system could be one way to do it. Sorry if it drifted too far off-topic:)
>>Fixing the educational system could be one way to do it.>>
Education has no impact on morals of a teenager. If parents do their jobs, and place their kids ABOVE their careers (but not above eachother), this example would be isolated, not more common.
If kids were REQUIRED to grow up with responsibility, she is right, the issues would minimize. History speaks of that. Only in our recent 40 years have the plague issues at issue here been so prevalent in modern Western society, made so by increasing information without correlating responsibility.
Simply, education and information are not wisdom and do not become wisdom. Wisdom is passed down... either by parents, or by the cute guy in math class.
But that's exactly why I say they should be allowed to be children longer. The problem is the parents. People want to blame this on society, but it's each of our responsibility to raise our kids to be responsible and moral in spite of what the rest of society is doing.
I just don't see how you can possibly do that by throwing them out there when they are 14 or 15 and trusting them to make all their own adult decisions. To me that seems like you are shirking your responsibility to your children to protect them.
Isn't it weird how it's a crime when a young man has sex with a girl. If it were a 17 year old girl and 15 year old boy there would have been high-fives all around.
Your kids better be prepared to be responsible for their own actions once their in Junior High School.
I've raised 5 and they were responsible at 13. When I was a girl I knew that if I put myself in certain positions I was at risk to be raped....I never put myself in those positions. What the H*ll is a 15 year old doing in that room if she wasn't consenting to sex. Plain and simple!
While I wish morals alone taught by parents could keep people from having pre-marital sex for 10+ years after puberty, we have to admit to ourselves that lenthy ammount of time it's a stretch for most people. This was not how it was done 2000 years ago. People got married at puberty!
I'm simply saying we're putting ourselves at an environmental disadvantage by un-naturally prolonging our adolescence. I'm proposing making things more traditional, which of course would be more conducive to living Christian moral lives.
Call me a cynical bastard, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if the prosecutor wasn't just pissed off for a number of reasons: First, the kid wouldn't go for the plea deal; second, the jury found him not guilty on the phony "rape" charge. After that, he went for a vindictive kill on the thing with the younger girl. Prick!
Yeah, they're stupid kids with idiot parents and no real moral compass, but 10 years in the joint for pissing off some dickweed prosecutor?
Stupid jurors. It is the nature of the jury system that law is on trial as well as the defendant. Good jurors nullify bad law. That is why we have juries...JFK
A friend of mine had her very immature slightly developmentally delayed 16 year old son facing 5 to 10 because on a youth camping trip a thirteen year old girl had oral sex with him. She said she was sixteen and was the aggressor. She was mad at her boyfriend so she decided to have another boy to get even.
He got off by having wealthy educated parents who moved the sun and the earth to keep him out of juvie hall.
If we could have children educated by 15, they could then attend college, meet their spouses, and start families the right way. They would avoid the prolonged 10+ year sexual repression from puberty until marriage (which virtually no one follows right now because it's impossible).
I would like to add that it would be wonderful to bring married housing back to the campuses across the US.
jury nullification is perfectly legal in Georgia although juries are never told of this before they deliberate.
It's about feelings, power & PC....not law &/or justice
This is a classic example of why explanations of the right of jury nullification should be required (by consitutional amendment if necessary).
Based on USSC decisions, the jury is the judge of both the facts and the law.
Sure, the boy was stupid, but I would have found him not guilty.
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