It's the 21st century. I can't believe Georgia is still this backward. A teenager gets 10 years in prison for hanky panky with a teenage girl 2 years younger than him? WTF is wrong with these people? Damn good thing she was black too, otherwise the state of GA probably would have lynched him. What a bunch of slopeheaded, slackjawed mouthbreathers must inhabit that hellhole.
Young man in consensual sex case leaves prison
Ga. court ordered Wilson released, ruled 10-year sentence was cruel
MSNBC video
Genarlow Wilson: 'It feels great'
Oct. 26: Genarlow Wilson, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with another teenager, holds a news conference after he was freed by the Georgia Supreme Court.
FORSYTH, Ga. - A young man who had been imprisoned for having consensual oral sex with another teenager was released from prison Friday after Georgia's Supreme Court intervened in the case.
The court ruled 4-3 that Genarlow Wilsons 10-year sentence was cruel and unusual punishment. Wilson served more than two years of the sentence.
Wilson's case led to widespread protests of heavy-handed justice. His supporters said race was one reason he received such a severe sentence, noting that he and the girl both black were only two years apart.
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"I'm happy to see that we've got justice now," Wilson said after being released from the Al Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, Ga. "I'm ready to piece back my life."
Wilson's supporters were jubilant.
"I never gave up hope in our judicial system, and I never gave up hope in all the prayers people sent out for us," said his mother, Juannessa Bennett.
Wilson said he was surprised to hear Friday morning on the radio that he would be freed. "It just felt unreal until I signed the paper," he said.
Wilson offered a word of caution to young people. A few minutes of fun can be a lifetime, he said. Theres not going to be anymore parties for me for a while.
Details of case
Wilson, now 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation following a 2003 New Years Eve party at a Douglas County hotel room where he was videotaped having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl. He was 17 at the time.
Wilson was acquitted of raping another 17-year-old girl at the party.
The 1995 law Wilson violated was changed in 2006 to make oral sex between teens close in age a misdemeanor, similar to the law regarding teen sexual intercourse. But the state Supreme Court later upheld a lower courts ruling which said that the 2006 law could not be applied retroactively.
Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the majority opinion that the changes in the law represent a seismic shift in the legislatures view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants.
Sears wrote that the severe punishment makes no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment and that Wilsons crime did not rise to the level of adults who prey on children.
Supporters: 'A long time coming'
State Attorney General Thurbert Baker said he accepts Fridays ruling.
Baker said he hopes the ruling will 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.
Wilsons supporters were jubilant.
Its been a long time coming, said U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an Atlanta Democrat. Each day that this young man spent in prison was a day too long.
Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who is visiting Georgia this week, called for an end to mandatory minimum prison sentences.
State lawmakers announced they had raised $4,000 toward a scholarship fund for Wilson, and Jackson promised another $5,000 from the Rainbow/PUSH organization.
Grave miscarriage of justice
The state Supreme Court had turned down Wilsons appeal of his conviction and sentence, but the justices agreed to hear the states appeal of a Monroe County judges decision to reduce Wilsons sentence to 12 months and free him. That judge had called the 10-year sentence a grave miscarriage of justice.
Dissenting justices wrote that the state Legislature expressly stated that the 2006 change in the law was not intended to affect any crime prior to that date.
They said Wilsons sentence could not be cruel and unusual because the state Legislature decided that Wilson could not benefit from subsequent laws reducing the severity of the crime from a felony to a misdemeanor.
They called the decision an unprecedented disregard for the General Assemblys constitutional authority.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21488038/
