What better alternative is there? The law is there for all to see and know. Do you seriously advocate for a system that is case-by-case, in which no person will or can know whether or not he will be (or how he will be) punished for an action?
The moral of this story is that if you have group sex with a fifteen year-old, if you have a good PR machine, you can get off with a slap on the wrist.
Do you think ages of consent should be judicially abolished? Apparently, the Georgia legislature thought that it would be a good idea to prevent older, more mature people from coercing younger, more naive people, into to consenting to sexual acts. Why should the judge--acting on his own--overturn the will of the people of the state of Georgia, who spoke through their legislature?
"The fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanor, and without assistance from this Court, will spend eight more years in prison, is a grave miscarriage of justice," the judge wrote.Human law is written, altered, changed, and amended by humans. All the time. It didn't come from a burning bush. It wasn't delivered by Moses. It was a stupid Georgia Law that even the State of Georgia decided had to go. But you want them to keep this kid locked up for 8 more years? To honor a law that doesn't even exist anymore? All in the name of The Law?
Good reason and judgment. The prosecutor did not have to bring this case--he had the option of using his judgment. The judge could have dismissed this case. The jury could have not convicted--except that juries today are trained to believe that they don't have the right to make decisions based on their own reasoning. The governor could have given a pardon. The legislature could have rewritten the law. Each one of these is a group that is hell bent on worshiping the law, even if the law gives them the option of good reason and judgment. But why would you use your reasoning when you can instead revert and follow the letter of the law like a computer, no matter how many it hurts?
That's exactly what we DO have. That's why each person charged is a separate CASE. Our system uses people, in the form of prosecutors, judges and juries, to apply the law in the expectation that they can see the difference between two teens getting it on and an adult taking advantage of a youth. What one can expect to know is the range of penalty ones offense can carry.
What would you prefer? That sentences were handed out by a look-up chart in a computer database?
The law should always be tempered by reason and common sense.
We do not desire to live in a society that has a written rule which governs every potential situation and eventuality.
That is precisely why “zero tolerance” is equal to zero common sense.