Release Genarlow Wilson from Prison, Court Says
Genarlow Wilson was Convicted of Consensual Oral Sex with a Teenager and Sentenced to 10 Years
Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the majority opinion that the "severe felony punishment and sex offender registration imposed on Wilson make no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment."
Sears also noted that the state legislature had made a "seismic shift" in amending the law. Consensual oral sex with a teenager is now only a misdemeanor that carries no more than a year in prison and requires no registration as a sex offender.
The majority said that society has a stake in protecting children from premature sex, but that Wilson's crime did not rise to a level that was consistent with punishment that would have treated him as an adult. The opinion said that the "extraordinarily harsh punishment of ten years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole ... appears to be grossly disproportionate to his crime."
Wilson will most likely be released Friday afternoon from the Al Burruss Correctional Training Facility in Monroe County. He was convicted in April 2005. Under Georgia law at the time, he faced a minimum of 10 years in prison with no chance of parole, followed by sex offender registration.
He was 17 when he had oral sex with the girl at a 2003 New Year's Eve party.
At issue in the ruling, the court said, were two questions: Was Wilson's punishment cruel and unusual? Should the court apply the 2006 change in law retroactively to Wilson's case? The dissenting opinion said Wilson should remain imprisoned because the law was expressly written so that it could not change what had happened.
The majority said that it did not apply the change in law retroactively to Wilson's conviction. Rather, it said, Wilson's punishment was cruel and unusual. The court cited Fleming v. Zant, and noted that the Eighth Amendment forbids punishment that "is grossly out of proportion to the severity of the crime."
Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said on Friday that the state will comply with the court's decision.
Published by Tim Skillern
I am the director of news-editorial for Yahoo! Contributor Network on Yahoo! News. Before that, I was a videographer, copy editor and/or sportswriter for the Rocky Mountain News, the Boulder Daily Camera and... View profile
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12 Comments
Post a CommentVery informative piece. Seems way too steep for me, as well. They're both under 18, if he was over it, sure, then it's a huge problem. If he forced her, yes, it's a major problem. Neither of these was the case. The right call is being made.
I see one vote in the postings below to support the original sentence. Compuwise. No surprise. And then when we say that Genarlow Wilson's sentence was way too severe, the sex crime hard-liners (pun intended) say we are somehow condoning or even recommending the behavior. Not just in this case, but horrifically overall, too many people in the United States seem ready to lock up other people for years upon years. Of course we need jails, but we don't need to use them at a 5- to 10-times higher rate than other nations of the world. Maybe if every American had to spend a couple days in jail as part of a high school citizenship class, we would take a different view of these various maximum sentences. Genarlow Wilson is among tens of thousands whose punishment exceeded the crime and in his case, he probably didn't even realize he was participating in a crime.
15 years old is statutory rape in most states, consensual or not.
If it's consensual..wtf?
They're both under 18, 2 years apart from each other.
THIS KID DIDN'T DESERVE 10 YEARS FROM THE START.
Glad they didn't let him sit and rot in a cell for too long.
For those of you who don't know about the case, Genarlow Wilson is black. The main reason for the harsh punishment is that he was engaging in oral sex with a white 15 year old girl. That's pretty funny that 3 judges were dissenting, shows you how racist they are.
I think this is long overdue. I have been following this case and the system sometimes seems so dysfunctional.
Shame on the judges. this is years too late.
Wow, how ridiculous that a then 17-year-old has been in prison since 2004 or 2005 until now because of consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old. Hopefully being in prison has not scarred this young man for life.
This was the only thing the court could do. They have given a kid more than they would have given an actual rapist. That is the way of society though. They would prefer to toss kids away while giving life long real criminals chance after chance.
Good work as always!