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."
Yes, I have to tell you I think this is racism myself.
In most jurisdictions, the original trial court retains jurisdiction over all post trial petitions regarding criminal sentences. These attorneys appear to have specifically chosen to not present their petition to the Douglas County Superior Court, but instead to the Monroe County Superior Court; hence, my question: does Georgia law really give the Monroe County court system appellate jurisdiction over actions of the Douglas County court system?
She drank alot on her own and engaged in sex. The jury didn’t see it as rape.
Is there a statute of limitations on underage sex? Will our upcoming 40th wedding anniversary shield me from charges?
I think there are a fair number of people on this board who'd wish you were not only prosecuted, but think you should still be in prison. Especially, of course, if you can somehow be linked to the "civil rights crowd," whoever they are.
Mary Winkler guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the March 2006 killing of her minister husband, Matthew. Judge gives her only 60 days in mental hospital............................
Mary Winkler gets 60 days in mental hospital..
Mary Winkler is ok, because she had nothing to do with the Civil Rights Crowd. If her name had been Tamika rather than Mary Winkler, some on this board would be clamoring for a death sentence. It’s disgusting, if you ask me.
Especially, of course, if you can somehow be linked to the “civil rights crowd,” whoever they are.
Well, civil rights are an awful thing. We should all be opposed to civil rights and it’s unruly crowd.
That's the crime that got Genarlow a 10 year sentence. This uppity negro attempted to exercise his constitutional right to a trial instead of taking whatever punishment the state unilaterally offered him! The district attorney himself said, verbatim, that Genarlow "decided to become a martyr" when he rejected the plea bargain.
I am surprised that on a board as conservative as Free Republic, so many people are so quick to throw down the Racist label for someone that simply advocates following the law.
This tells me that you know you are wrong and you have no other argument.
Why did you send your post (#60) to me?
Huh?
Because you were the seeming target of an ad hominem.
I mistakenly assumed that regular readers of this forum were quite familiar with the Al Sharpton gang. Are they "black"? Well, in their opinion, they are the very Voice of Blackness, I guess, and they just love to magnify any evidence the newspapers provide that Georgia is still the Old South and racism still alive and well here and everywhere in our evil nation.
For that reason, it doesn't affect their view at all that the Georgia AG himself is "black," and I'm sure it will not affect yours either.
Ya know what? I would make a bet he was the ringleader for the whole orgy and set up the videotaping himself.
Was force used in this case? I think it said everything was totally consensual. So in that case, the only thing to consider is he should really have thought twice about how young this girl was.””
In the AM news shows interviews, this morning, he didn’t think he had done ANYTHING wrong with a girl of 15.
If it had been my daughter, he would not have even seen trial. He would have been disciplined by me.
And maybe that would have been more appropriate. Not every act of less than chivalrous behavior needs a legal remedy.
Oh, no! Another VICTIM!!! Ask him if he's African-American or something so you can wail about how everybody who looks like him is suffering from the abuse.
Is something wrong with you? Are you always like this? Don’t you have anything better to do?
Matter of fact, I do. I have actually cancelled the Atlanta newspaper because I am tired of reading their rancid propaganda, but they keep throwing it in my driveway, so I opened it this a.m. to read (for the zillionth time) about the plight of your friend the "honor student." It made me angry then, and it still makes me angry, since this latest Martyr for the Liberal Cause is an unusually unworthy one. But I wasn't as bothered by the AJC as I am by you and your buddies on this thread, so I will sign off and do something else. Maybe clean the litter box.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.