State argues: No freedom [for imprisoned punk]

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.

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."

You ask a question in this post

Who did he rape? Source?

Then you want me to answer it before I even read the post.

You’re still not answering the question: you say. Let me answer it for you .

He was charged with rape: It says so right here in this story. The other kids made a plea agreement and no trial. He went to trial and beat the case. Now if he wasnt guilty the others probably werent either so why should thay have that rape on their records. If they turn this fellow loose they should go back and clean up everyones record.If the others WERE guilty he probably was too and just got lucky. So technically you are correct, he beat the case—not guilty. That makes you happy fine. My source is this story .

I am sure you consider this kid a fine upstanding youth and wish he were dating your daughter,but for me, I say we will hear from this kid again. Only time will tell. I hope your Goody two shoes opinion comes true and I am wrong.

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.

[Sparta Police Chief Andrew] Milanowski ruled out Peterson as a possible stalker of the attractive local hairdresser, but still felt that a law might have been broken.

"We came back and we looked up the laws and we figured if we found one and thought, 'Well, let's run it by the prosecutor's office and see what they want to do,'" Milanowski said.

Those busy little beavers in your state capital have been involved in a non-stop, day-and-night race with the United States Tax Code to see who can generate the most pages of "stuff that might be useful if somebody doesn't have the proper respect for the system".

Also known as The Wild and Free Pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp.

:-)

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.

We learned back in 1998-1999 that "the law" is a very subjective thing.

For example, did you know that you can perjure yourself in front of a federal judge and not serve any jail time (ESPECIALLY if you're a Democrat president)...?

I've had a difficult time with snickering when someone brings up "following the law" ever since.

And then there's that whole "Undocumented Americans" thingee, too. I've had a difficult time finding out what the legal penalties for that are, but I must confess that I have little Internet research experience or aptitude with which to illuminate the facts of the matter.

Or not - I always forget which one it is...

A drunk 15-year-old is not competent enough to consent to sex or to the videotaping of it. I do not understand why anyone thinks this creep should get of jail. This wasn’t some “first love” stupid mistake; this was degrading, irresponsible, abusive behavior by a young man who knew better. It’s way past time to expect decency from teenagers.

The AG has broad prosecutorial discretion, which he no doubt exercises on a daily basis.

Yes, based on whether or not he believes he has a case with sufficient evidence, not on whether or not he likes the law he is supposed to be enforcing. AG's do not have free reign to just ignore laws they don't like.

Update
>>Teen sex case sentence goes to high court
From Times Wire Reports
June 15, 2007

The state Supreme Court agreed to hear the state’s arguments for keeping in prison a man who had consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

Atty. Gen. Thurbert E. Baker has been criticized for appealing a state judge’s decision to void Genarlow Wilson’s 10-year sentence but said in Atlanta that he had no choice under the law. The Superior Court judge had no authority to reduce or modify the trial court’s sentence, he said.

Wilson, now 21, has served more than 28 months in prison. A jury convicted him in 2005 of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with the girl at a 2003 party. Although the sex was consensual, it was illegal under Georgia law. <<

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