This one is a long time coming. Genarlow Wilson, the Douglas County teen convicted of child molestation charges for receiving oral sex from a 15 year old girl, is finally out of jail after almost 4 years. He was stuck under the Georgia Child Protection Act of 1995 that made it a felony for having sex with someone under the age of consent, which is 16 in Georgia. The act made the crime a mandatory 10 year sentence.

I have never condoned what they did that night at a New Year’s Eve party. They filmed a small party where multiple guys had sex with the 15 year old girl and another 17 year old girl at the party. What they did was ridiculous and even worse because they had the bright idea to film the whole thing. But, and this is a big one, it was all consentual between everyone there and they were all in high school.

Wilson’s four-year legal odyssey has inflamed racial tensions in Georgia while capturing the nation’s attention.

Black civil rights leaders alleged race and class have been at play in the case, which sparked protest marches and demonstrations in Douglasville, where Wilson was prosecuted. Douglas County prosecutors, meanwhile, have vehemently denied race played a role, noting all the defendants and victims in the case are black.

The case stems from a drug- and alcohol-fueled New Year’s Eve party Wilson attended at a Douglasville hotel in 2003. Wilson was charged with raping a 17-year-old girl at the party, but was acquitted. He was ultimately found guilty of felony aggravated child molestation for receiving oral sex from the 15-year-old girl, a crime that carried a minimum 10-year prison sentence under state law at the time.

Four other male youths at the party pleaded guilty to child molestation of the 15-year-old and sexual battery of the 17-year-old. A fifth pleaded guilty to false imprisonment. Their party was captured on a profanity-laden and sexually graphic video filmed by one of the male youths.

Since Wilson’s conviction, the former Republican state lawmaker who authored the state Child Protection Act in 1995 has repeatedly insisted it was never his intent to lock up teenagers involved in consensual sex acts. Last year, the Legislature changed the law to make similar acts a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 12 months in prison.

The Supreme Court noted that legal change in the 48-page opinion it issued in Wilson’s case Friday morning: “For the law to punish Wilson as it would an adult, with the extraordinarily harsh punishment of ten years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, appears to be grossly disproportionate to his crime,” wrote Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, who sided with the majority in the court’s 4-3 decision in favor of freeing Wilson.

Article link

Posted by kdub under Current Headlines & Mahogany Alert |