NYT: Georgia Man Fights Conviction as Molester (also see thread in GD forum)

[RedEarth]

Georgia Man Fights Conviction as Molester
By SHAILA DEWAN
ATLANTA, Dec. 18 — Genarlow Wilson, 20, is serving a prison sentence that shocked his jury, elicited charges of racism from critics of the justice system and even acknowledgment by prosecutors and the State Legislature that it is unjust.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison without parole for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a New Year’s Eve party, an offense that constituted aggravated child molesting, even though Mr. Wilson was 17. With Mr. Wilson — a football player, honor student and the first homecoming king at Douglas County High School — nearing two years in prison, the Georgia Supreme Court declined last Friday to hear his appeal.

Mr. Wilson, who is black, is trapped in a legal vise intended to ensure severe penalties for child molesters and other sex offenders, navigating a maze of legal technicalities that for him seems to hold nothing but dead ends. Some critics of the sentence also say Mr. Wilson is caught in a system that metes out disproportionately harsh sentences to black defendants.

Disturbed by Mr. Wilson’s conviction, the Legislature changed the law in March to ensure that most sex between teenagers be treated as a misdemeanor. But the State Supreme Court said legislators had chosen not to make the law retroactive.

“While I am very sympathetic to Wilson’s argument regarding the injustice of sentencing this promising young man with good grades and no criminal history to 10 years in prison without parole and a lifetime registration as a sexual offender,” wrote Justice Carol W. Hunstein, “this court is bound by the Legislature’s determination that young persons in Wilson’s situation are not entitled to the misdemeanor treatment.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/us/19georgia.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=e26f669d65b26811&ex=1166677200&pagewanted=print

.....see petition at this DU link......

17yr old gets 10 yrs in prison for a bj ...please DU the petition

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2952019&mesg_id=2952019

[rodeodance]

1. This man should not be branded for the rest of his life. This Registration

stuff needs to be rethought in instances such as this.

[Occulus]

4. Oh, but they HAVE to, because

"sex offenders AAALLLLLWWWAYYYYYYYYSSSS reoffend"

:eyes:

[msongs]

2. and bush who has murdered so many people walks free... nt

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Completely ridiculous

I understand the concern over real cases of molestation, but the hysteria has managed to criminalize normal adolescent behavior, as in this case.

Guess what, people. It's normal for 15 year olds to experiment with oral sex among their peers. It's not deviant or aberrant or bound to damage them psychologically or any such nonsense. In fact, it's part of the sexual maturation process. The fucking culture of childhood has really gone into absurd overdrive with this sentence - hell the very fact that this is a crime means that many of us were outright criminals when we were 16 and 17. Shit! What's the statute of limitations on getting blowjobs in parties when you're a teenager? I better call a fucking lawyer. And so should YOU, if you lived anything resembling a normal male, American teenage life!

This shit is out of control.

[Ezlivin]

5. If the young man was Colin Powell's son this would not have happened

Although I believe there is a racial aspect to this, the biggest role is that of sufficient money for a good defense.

And having a well-known father or mother would help.

The American "justice" system works better if you are a celebrity or wealthy.

[TroglodyteScholar]

9. If the law is written not to be retroactive...

...there really is no recourse in the justice system (unless the court finds the law unconstitutional, which it's not).

So better defense isn't the issue at all -- it's our shitty legislature not caring enough to write a law that RETROACTIVELY protects people like this poor kid.

The state's ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES are to blame, not the court system.

On edit: Sonny Perdue COULD pardon the kid, but that would damage his "tough on sex-offenders" image that he's so proud of. Nevermind that all sex offenses are not equal.

[Joe Bacon]

6. Justice really means "Just-Us Rich Folks"

This is the sad reality of a nation that bullshits about Jesus but follows Ayn Rand.

[free_spirit82]

7. My cousin was convicted of stat, rape in GA....

He was a 25 y/o white male. Had two previous federal offenses from two different states on his record already. Got arrest for having repeated sex with a 15 y/o girl, kidnapping, and breaking probation. (He had been sleeping with her since she was 14, but they couldn't prove it which bumped him from being charged with child molestation.)

He got 10 more years probation, no jail time, and although he is made to register as a sex offender, they allow him to break the "no living within 1000 yards of a school, church, or park" rule by placing him in my grandmother's house (across the road from a large Methodist church).

I was livid. I had had friends and other family that had been sent to jail for much longer than this for minor charges. My cousin was an adult, taking advantage of a disturbed little girl (she had a lot of personal problems before my cousin came in the picture, and when she was finally placed with family that actually cared about her and were trying to get her straightened out, he talked her into running away with him.) And they gave him a slap on the wrist because his father was a local chief of police.

[RubyDuby in GA]

8. Don't be down on Justice Carol Hunstein

She's a good liberal and she's taking a smack at the asshole Republican controlled legislature when she says “this court is bound by the Legislature’s determination that young persons in Wilson’s situation are not entitled to the misdemeanor treatment.”

This whole case was the dumbest damn thing ever.

[TroglodyteScholar]

10. Amen, RubyDuby...

Justice Hunstein was DEFINITELY pointing the finger out our state's out-of-control Republicans who pay so little attention that they wouldn't make an otherwise GOOD LAW retroactive.

If the court had taken any other stance, they would've been "legislating from the bench," which right-wingers love to cry about.