Posted on 06/12/2007 1:32:21 PM PDT by madprof98
Judge says Genarlow Wilson has served enough time for consensual teen sex offense, but attorney general fights ruling.
Genarlow Wilson, sentenced to 10 years in prison for receiving consensual oral sex in 2003 from a 15-year-old girl when he was 17, was ready to walk out of prison Monday after a judge granted his appeal.
But he was told he must remain behind bars while authorities decide if he should be granted bond while the attorney general's office appeals the judge's ruling.
Wilson, 21, learned Monday that his more than two years in prison were apparently coming to an end with the order by Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Wilson.
Within hours, however, state Attorney General Thurbert Baker filed notice that he would appeal the ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court, arguing the judge had overstepped his authority.
That set Wilson's attorneys scrambling to free him on bond from the Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth. But a prosecutor in the case would not immediately agree to a bond arrangement, Wilson's attorneys said. State prison officials said they would not release Wilson until they receive guidance from Baker's office or the court where he was originally sentenced in Douglas County.
One of Wilson's attorneys described a telephone conversation she had with Wilson after the judge's ruling.
"I just got off the phone with him," B.J. Bernstein angrily told reporters as Wilson's grim-faced mother quietly sat nearby. "He has now heard about the judge's opinion. Literally, people at the prison were saying, 'You are going home today. Congratulations. I want to say goodbye to you.' And I just had to tell that child he is staying there, that we don't have a bond for him, that we can't get him out."
The twists and turns in the case sent Wilson's attorneys and family through several emotional highs and lows Monday. His mother, Juannessa Bennett, praised the judge's ruling, calling it a "miracle." But by afternoon she was too worn out to speak, said a spokeswoman for her son's attorneys.
Bernstein, in a hearing last week, asked Judge Wilson to free her client from prison, asserting that his 10-year prison sentence and inclusion on the state sex offender registry were grossly disproportionate and violated the Constitution. She pointed out that the Legislature changed the law last year to make such an offense a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison.
The judge granted the appeal, agreeing Wilson's 10-year prison sentence "would be viewed by society as 'cruel and unusual' in the constitutional sense of disproportionality." The judge also changed Wilson's felony conviction to a misdemeanor without the requirement that he register as a sex offender.
"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," Judge Wilson wrote in his order. "If any case fits into the definitive limits of a miscarriage of justice, surely this case does."
The judge 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."
Baker's office responded in a statement to reporters Monday afternoon, saying Judge Wilson has "absolutely no authority ... to reduce or modify the judgment of the trial court, in this case, the Superior Court of Douglas County."
Baker's decision angered civil rights activists, who held a news conference outside his office Monday and called on him to back off the appeal or resign.
"Go —- as our designated champion of law and justice —- and urge the courts to set this political prisoner free," the Rev. Joseph Lowery, a veteran civil rights activist, wrote Baker on Thursday. "You are expected to be more than some robot obeying the whims [and errors] of some heartless machine. ... Where is your conscience, that you would allow this travesty to occur on your watch?"
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 found guilty of aggravated child molestation involving the 15-year-old girl, a crime that carried a minimum 10-year prison sentence under the law at the time. 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 males. 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 in that city in the Burruss Correctional Training Center. The state attorney general's office is representing Burruss' warden in the appeal.
A problem of precedent
Matt Towery, a Republican state House member from 1993 to 1997, said Monday it was never his intent to lock up teenagers involved in consensual sex acts when he authored the law in 1995 that Wilson was convicted under —- the Child Protection Act. 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 serious felonies.
"Needless to say I think justice was done [by Wilson's ruling]," 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."
State Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said he worries about the legal precedent the judge set Monday by ordering Wilson freed. Johnson fought a bill this year that would have let a judge modify Wilson's sentence along with those of many others convicted of certain felony consensual sex crimes between teenagers. The bill failed.
"We have all said that was a harsh sentence," Johnson said of Wilson's 10-year term. "The precedent of this is what I'm concerned about. ... The Georgia Supreme Court already ruled on the constitutionality of some of this. I think this was another ... [judge] enjoying his 15 minutes of fame."
Baker is right to be concerned about legal precedents, said Ron Carlson, a law professor at the University of Georgia, who has authored many books on criminal trial procedures and evidence.
"One issue that attorneys general have to worry about is the so-called floodgate problem," Carlson said. "Since dozens and dozens have been sentenced under the law as it previously existed ... the attorney general may well be worried about hundreds of prisoners banging on their cell doors and demanding the same treatment as Genarlow Wilson. That is a valid concern."
What if the punk were white? What name would you call me then?
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I would not call you anything, because you would not be posting.
It’s not surprising this punk kid has no respect for the law. He has no “respect,” period. What he does is no surprise. I suppose it should also be no surprise that all the usual suspects—starting with the media and including the media whores who traffic in race—share his mindset.
Although your question was not addressed to me, I feel called upon to tell you that teen-agers always experiment with sex, and that it would be quite abnormal if they didn’t. Since both of the participants involved were under their legal majority, and consent was given on both sides, the people of Georgia should have used some common sense. Even if the boy involved was a ‘punk,’ whatever that means, there was no crime here, except as set forth by the state of Georgia, in it’s sick and pathetic effort to control even the private, consentual activity of it’s citizens.
Not true. The AG has broad prosecutorial discretion, which he no doubt exercises on a daily basis. By no means does he have to prosecute every possible case, nor does he have to exercise every possible appeal. This is simply cruel.
Thank you for spewing some more libertarian crap.
Sob, sob, sob.
Any Georgia lawyers lurking about?
Possibly not, because more than likely the media would not have found a white punk quite as appealing as a victim and centered a front-page-every-day campaign around his so-called plight.
You seem to have drawn up a lot of conclusions about this kid. I've never met him, I don't know anybody who knows him, all I know is that he (1) was an honor student and star athlete (2) did something stupid at a party and (3) after two years in prison has more than paid the price for his stupidity. On what basis do you draw larger conclusions about his lack of "respect" or your supposition that he has a future career ahead of him as a rapist? You seem like a very angry person, whatever it is.
What a jerk.
The facts here (such as the facts tucked into the corner of the paper by our state’s AG) are quite irrelevant. All that matters are good intentions.
I'm sorry, I don't recall you answering my repeated request for your views. Once again: how long should this kid have been sent to prison for?
That's not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of law. It seems to me reasonable to have offered him a plea deal, both at the time of his sentencing and now, at the time of his appeal.
So if you don’t think you committed a crime, why plead guilty.
I have no doubt the other 4 were threatened with plead guilty to the lesser charge or we will take it to trial. They took their chance with the plea bargain.
If there was a video of this party, I would think that would be the proof the rape occurred. I don’t understand why he was acquitted of the charge.
“There is lots of underage sex going on, you are going to need many jails if it is a crime.”
Is there a statute of limitations on underage sex? Will our upcoming 40th wedding anniversary shield me from charges?
In Texas, there is a 2 year age difference clause. So, the consent issue only comes into play when one is under the age of consent AND there is a greater than 2 year age difference. In this case (15 & 17), the issue of consent based on age would not apply. However, Texas also states that an intoxicated person can not consent -- giving them the basis for the date rape cases. If they got her drunk or drugged her, there could not be consent.
Is my memory correct that the 15 year old is caucasian and Wilson is black? If so, I’m surprised that the usual suspects (Jesse and Al) aren’t screaming for release,too.
But the law came from some place -- do you think the mandatory sentence provided in the law (10 years) was a proper sentence fitting the crime? If you were in the legislature, and you had to chose a sentence, what do you think would have been appropriate for a similar "offense?"
Not on this board-be very careful.
When the going gets tough, the MadProfs get personal.
Out of curiosity MadProf, why have you avoided explaining what you meant when you referred to supporters of the boy as the "Civil Rights Crowd?" Is that a euphemism for "black?"
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