Genarlow Wilson: Free at Last

With the real specter of WWIII if the neocons throw one last parting wrench into the works of sane global governing by bombing Iran, the small victory today of Genarlow Wilson is welcome news.

Genarlow Wilson, I hope you remember, was the seventeen-year-old Georgia high school homecoming king and 3.2 G.P.A. student, sentenced to ten years for receiving consensual oral sex from a fifteen-year-old back in 2005. Finally this June the Soviet-styled sentencing was overturned after the state of Georgia had already wasted two years of this young man's life. It seemed that the Kafkaesque nightmare was over and this young black Georgian could finally get on with his life.

Yet moments later Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, the highest ranking black elected official in the state, faxed the celebrating family of young Mr. Wilson that he was appealing the verdict.

As Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson stated in his decision to free Genarlow Wilson, "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....If any case fits into the definitive limits of a miscarriage of justice, surely this case does."

Today the Georgia Supreme Court agreed with Judge Wilson.

"Although society has a significant interest in protecting children from premature sexual activity, we must acknowledge that Wilson's crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children ..." Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears is quoted as saying in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a statement emailed to me today from Attorney General Baker's office he writes: "I have received and reviewed the decision by the Georgia Supreme Court in this matter, and I respectfully acknowledge the Court's authority to grant the relief that they have crafted in this case."

That's all fine but he goes on to write:

"As the Supreme Court found, the habeas court's order re-sentencing Mr. Wilson, however well-meaning, was unauthorized under Georgia law. It was for this reason that I appealed, in order to insure a fair and consistent application of the law not just to Mr. Wilson, but to others similarly situated."

Mr. Baker, even in defeat, still hides behind a rigid and robotic interpretation of the law, still failing to understand that in his literalist interpretation of the law, justice was not served.

Yes, there is the law written in books but if there were no such thing as prosecutorial discretion then there would be no need for attorneys and judges. A computer could compile the facts and dispense what it calculated was "justice."

When you are dealing with human beings, especially with young humans whose freedom has been snatched from them, then a compassionate society must do better than merely dispensing vital decisions about their future out of a vending machine.

Comments

[nickyboy1]

Every time I read of a new injustice I cry. . what is wrong here??? It never ends with these right wing fanatics. Thank God Mr Wilson is free
& hopefully stays free... That judge should be
disbarred and/or jailed.

[maxcat06]

For a moment, it feels good to be a Georgian.

[SatanicPanic]

Amen, this was a travesty from the beginning, I'm glad to see this young man will be able to get on with his life.

[PhantomAviator]

Hm...at least he's an Equal Opportunity Nazi. That almost guarantees him a nomination for Supreme Court.

Isn't that how Scalia got the job?

[sarge]

yea!

[Nommo]

Law enforcement--interesting how as the outlaws spiral out of control in the halls of power, how much effort can be expended to ruin and destroy completely a young person's life. Then it seems to be most directed at Black and "other minority"
youth.
It has got to be great living in a nation that has its priorities in order.

[crownjewel82]

Thank God someone understands that law and justice aren't the same thing. I hope that all the other Genarlow Wilsons out there find their justice as well.

[JustJoeKing]

I hope that Mr. Wilson can get on with the rest fo his life and the pathetic appeal by Baker is denied.

[leftcoastindy]

Thurbert Baker is worse than Clarence Thomas.

Apparently just because a man is an learned overacheiver doesn't mean they have common sense or decency.

[nihilon x]

"Genarlow Wilson, I hope you remember, was the seventeen-year-old Georgia high school homecoming king and 3.2 G.P.A. student, sentenced to ten years for receiving consensual oral sex from a fifteen-year-old back in 2005."

If this law were applied to every teenager in American, we'd have an entire nation of incarcerated high schoolers.

Many say that black people often see racism "where there is none" but giving a black teenager 10 years in jail for having consensual oral sex with another (white) teenager simply verifies the fact that we live in a nation where even non-violent, non-criminal black men are treated far more harshly by the system than their white counterparts simply on the basis of race alone.

[babylonandon]

I forget the name but there's a guy here in Wisconsin that was convicted at I think 19 for (repeatedly) having consensual sex with his 16 or 17 year-old girlfreind.

He was convicted and did a couple of years in jail for it and now, even worse has to register as a sex offender under our relatively new and very harsh program.

In Wisconsin, the registry doesn't differentiate between folks who can't by any stretch of the imagination be considered as a predator and those for whom anyone (with a gram of common sense) would think should be locked up if not executed.

Now this guy, who managed to stay out of trouble for over a decade, who has a family and kids of his own, is suddenly being ostracized by the middle class suburb of Milwaukee he lives in, harrassed by his neighbors with posters on all of the poles around his home, curses screamed at his family, death threats on his phone and in his mail, and responses from the police along the lines of "if you'd just kill yourself it would all go away".

There is no racism involved here as both the guy and his neighbors are the same but to hear his neighbors on the news interviews you'd think he was Jeffery Dahmer reborn.

Georgia isn't the only effed up state. At least Genarlow might get off due to the public opinion that the Georgia AG is a nutcase. The Judge who threw the entire bookcase at this guy here is considered a hero by some.

[suki21693]

Where did you read that the girl was white?

Not that Wikipedia is always the best source, but they have a pretty extensive article about this which specifically says the girl involved in the oral sex was African American.

[LeftRight]

Wait, they're STILL appealing this?? What the heck is wrong in GA?? This kid did something that most kids do (or at least a large percentage of them!) Why the AG is continuing this case is beyond me, but I hope that the fine people of GA either vote this guy out next election, or if he serves as an appointment, convince the governmor that he needs to go!

[MsLiz]

This is the sort of elected officials we get when we elect "tough on crime" prosecutors.

[Kansas Evans]

The dissenting judges argued that since the Georgia Assembly had specifically stated that the law was not to apply retroactively.--What mess! See folks, that's a direct message to a specific group of people who act like judicial review isn't part of the court's philosophy.

I was also delighted to hear that Genarlow Wilson was freed. I hope he'll be able to continue his life and education after this. I also hope the boys are able to have their plea agreements amended.