Justice Perverted.
This case is infuriating. It was infuriating when it was happening, and it’s infuriating now, when it’s back in the headlines. The Georgia State Attorney General deserves to be disbarred. He shouldn’t ever be allowed near a courtroom again (except as a defendant).
To very briefly summarize, at a New Years’ Eve party in 2003, a 17-year old young man named Genarlow Wilson received consensual oral sex from a 15-year old young lady. A video camera captured the entire episode for posterity. It also captured later on, when Genarlow and several other young men at the party had consensual sex with a young lady that the prosecutor felt was too drunk to consent.
After a trial in 2005, Genarlow was found not guilty of the rape charge for having intercourse with the drunken young lady, however, he was found guilty of having received oral sex from the 15-year old girl. If he’d had intercourse with the 15-year old girl, it would have fallen under a statute that permitted consensual relations between teenagers. Because it was oral sex, it was an automatic felony, carrying a mandatory 10-year sentence, followed by lifetime registration on the sexual offender registry.
Genarlow had no record, he was in fact an honors student and star athlete. He did what virtually any 17-year old would do at a party when a young lady offered him oral sex — he accepted. The young lady wasn’t scarred by this experience, she wasn’t forced or coerced. She didn’t want to see him get in trouble for it. The jurors didn’t want him sent to prison for 10 years, they were simply following the letter of the law — did he have oral sex with the girl, yes or no? Yes? Then he’s guilty. And if he’s guilty, 10 years in the slammer. Jurors expressed frustration that there wasn’t a lesser charge or a mitigator that could be applied.
And so, off to prison he went.
The huge loophole in the law was so glaringly unfair and obviously ill-conceived, that state legislators closed it and made any future conduct of this nature a misdemeanor. Unfortunately, the law was not retroactive.
And so, Genarlow stayed in prison.
And then, on Monday, Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson ruled that Genarlow Wilson’s punishment was cruel and unusual, and voided it on constitutional grounds. He reduced the sentence to one year (Wilson has already served more than two) and stated that if any court could not recognize the injustice of the sentence, then the court system has lost sight of the goal of the judicial system — justice being served in a fair and equal manner.
Almost immediately after the Judge’s ruling, Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker acted to block Wilson’s release by filing an appeal of the ruling, stating that the Judge did not have the authority to reduce or modify the ruling of the trial court.
As Judge Wilson so courageously pointed out, “the fact that Genarlow Wilson has spent two years in prison for what is now classified as a misdemeanor, and without assistance from this Court, will spend eight more years in prison, is a grave miscarriage of justice.”
Genarlow Wilson has thoroughly paid for his “crime” and should be set free. I can only believe that the AG’s mean-spirited appeal is meant to insure that the state isn’t held liable for the extreme miscarriage of justice and misapplication of the law. I have written to Georgia state Governor Perdue asking him to intervene in the case, and to further remove the AG from office. I hope enough other people will do so as well, so that both goals can be accomplished. In addition to several relatives and in-laws, I happen to have children and grandchildren living in Georgia, and I would hate to think that someday one of my loved ones would come up against this despicable man.
FOXNews.com - Georgia Judge Voids 10-Year Sentence in Consensual Teen Sex Case || Last minute appeal in teen sex case sparks outrage - CNN.com || Save Genarlow Wilson, Remove District Attorney Thurbert Baker - Yahoo! News || Justice mocked again in Genarlow Wilson case | ajc.com || Just Google It™! || Kate blogs at The Original Musings.
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3 users commented in " Genarlow Wilson "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackbackwhy isn’t it retroactive? all the other sex offender laws are?
oh I forgot The Pope likes it that way~!
There are a few facts left out of this blog. First, the sex act was not consensual. The girl was 15, and the age of consent in Georgia is 16. This was a willing, but not consensual, sex act. Second, had Genarlow had sex with the girl, he would still have faced a 5-year prison sentence, rather than the 10-year sentence he has. It was still illegal, based on the laws on the books at that time, to engage in sexual activity with a 15-year old. Third, Genarlow did have other options available to him. The other young men who participated in the “party” took plea bargains and received lower sentences. At least one has already been paroled. Genarlow chose to go to trial, and was tried, convicted, and sentenced legally. At least 12 jurors and 1 judge agree on that fact. If Genarlow is a victim, he is a victim of his own poor choices and refusal to accept responsibility for his actions. It is unacceptable and illegal to participate in a sex act with a 15-year-old girl. He broke the law. He needs to acknowledge that. Note that what he did is still a misdemeanor, and would still entail jail time today. It is still illegal in Georgia to participate in a sex act with a 15-year old girl. The legislature had the power to make the law change apply retroactively, and chose not to. They did so knowingly. The prosecutor performed his duties legally and ethically, and the attorney general is doing the same thing. No judge has the authority to substitute his or her judgment in the place of the trial court. If we choose to disregard the rule of law, then it can no longer protect us. Imagine what would happen if every judge decided that his or her judgment should be taken in place of another’s. The result would be chaos. Genarlow’s case will be heard in front of Georgia’s Supreme Court in October. We’ll have to wait until then to see whether his sentence will be modified.
I don’t need to imagine “what would happen if every judge decided that his or her judgement should be taken in place of another’s” because every judge would not decide that.
The result would not “be chaos” because every judge does not want to override the law or replace it with whims.
It is not a rigid adherence to a rule that protects us, it is intelligence. Sometimes the “rule of law” does not fit the reality of what would be a truly Just sentence. It is important for a judge to be able to recognize injustice- far more important than sending a kid to prison for doing what teenagers everywhere do-have sex with other willing teenagers- no matter how many adults try to stop them with rules, scare tactics, threats and laws.
Try instead to imagine what would happen if every judge was only there to read out the sentence specified by laws written with no consideration of the individual cases.
Do you think justice is better served by applying a blanket law?
Do you think the letter of the law is always more correct than any deviation from it?
“I was just following the rules” is an excuse for those who are not willing to do the work of being truly human, and rising above the rules, including laws, in order to uphold the ideals that our legal system was built to uphold.
As President Lincoln said… “The punishment for a crime should not do more harm than the crime.”
Do you agree with him?
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