Legal Lunacy Reversed: GA Attorney General Takes a Chill Pill While Genarlow Wilson Goes Home

According to a recent report, Thurbert Baker said [of the Georgia Supreme Court's decision to free Genarlow Wilson], "I respectfully acknowledge the Court's authority to grant the relief that they have crafted in this case. I hope the Court's decision will also put an end to this issue as a matter of contention in the hearts and minds of concerned Georgians and others across the country who have taken such a strong interest in this case."

Interesting use of the word "crafted" here.

Thurbert Baker has rested from his labor. The Supreme Court of Georgia has affirmed that Baker's efforts to deny Genarlow Wilson bail pending appeal was correct, but has since ordered him discharged from correctional custody on the grounds that his sentence was both cruel and unusual.

Surely music to the ears of everyone passionately engaged in the defense case of Genarlow Wilson, the young man convicted 2 years ago for having consensual sexual contact with a 15 year old girl when he himself was a minor - 17 to be exact. He was originally -and unreasonably - sentenced to 10 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Chief Justice Sears held that the 10 year sentence was cruel and unusual, a violation of Genarlow Wilson's 8^th amendment rights.

The issue dealt more with the fact that the law Wilson was originally prosecuted under had been changed. The law, which called for a 10 year mandatory sentence and sex offender registration now provided for a 1 year sentence and no sex offender registration. This change was not to be applied retroactively to inmates like Genarlow Wilson, which is unfortunate. It should have been clear to any legal professional that the mandatory sentence for a consensual act between two minors was unreasonable. It is clear the law was written for predatory practices engaged in by adults - such as teachers, or anyone who has been seen on Dateline's 'To Catch a Predator'. But I digress.

Writing for the majority, Judge Sears said, "For the law to punish Wilson as it would an adult, with the extraordinarily harsh punishment of 10 years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, appears to be grossly disproportionate to his crime" ; I concur. Interestingly enough, the majority also said, "Finally, at the time Wilson committed his offense, a fifty-year-old man who fondled a five year-old girl for his sexual gratification could receive as little as five years in prison, and a person who beat, choked, and forcibly raped a woman against her will could be sentenced to ten years in prison. There can be no legitimate dispute that the foregoing crimes are far more serious and disruptive of the social order than a teenager receiving oral sex from another willing teenager. " These are the grounds on which Genarlow Wilson is free today, but it was a very close ruling, 4-3; it could have ended very differently.

While I understand the dissenting justices' apprehension that retroactive application of the law might release potentially dangerous or even serial sex offenders, the reality is that, on its face, justice was not served at the onset of the Genarlow Wilson case. The mere fact that charges were filed is evidence enough of that.

The minority are using strict adherence to the law; particularly the part about retroactive application. They also insinuate that the majority has used the cruel and unusual punishment amendment "as a guise to extend the applicability of the 2006 amendment...not withstanding that doing so is in direct contravention of the express legislative intent of the General Assembly."

I understand that the law was simply what it was at the time of the alleged offense; we all do. However, Genarlow Wilson's actions hardly made him a menace to society or a child molester or young T.C. [the 15 year old girl] a victim. Justice at times can be a fickle pendulum that swings by the direction of the wind. This time it blew on the side of justice.