Thread: Judge: No 10-Year Sentence for Teen Sex

Jun 11, 12:46 PM (ET)

By SHANNON McCAFFREY

ATLANTA (AP) - A Georgia judge ordered the release Monday of a man sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

The judge threw out Genarlow Wilson's previous sentence and amended it to misdemeanor aggravated child molestation with a 12-month sentence, plus credit for time served. Under the new ruling, he will not be required to register as a sex offender.

Wilson, now 21, has been behind bars for more than two years.

"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 ... justice being served in a fair and equal manner," wrote Judge Thomas H. Wilson, no relation to Genarlow Wilson.

The original sentence, for aggravated child molestation, was widely criticized on the grounds it was grossly disproportionate to the crime. State lawmakers later passed a law to close the loophole that led to the 10-year sentence.

"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," the judge wrote.

The attorney general's office did not immediately comment.

A Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman said the agency cannot take any action regarding Wilson nor comment on his case until it receives a copy of the judge's order. Wilson's lawyers said they expected to talk with prison officials in the afternoon.

Genarlow Wilson's lawyers applauded in their office and hugged his mother, who wiped away tears, as the order came over a fax machine.

"We right now have an order of release and I beg the attorney general of the state of Georgia please do not file an appeal," said Wilson's lawyer, B.J. Bernstein.

Wilson's mother, Juannessa Bennett, said, "I just feel like a miracle happened."

A jury found the honor student guilty in 2005 of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl during a 2003 New Year's Eve party involving alcohol and marijuana. Although the sex act was consensual, it was illegal under Georgia law.

Wilson was also charged with rape for being one of several male partygoers at the Douglas County hotel to have sex with a 17-year-old girl, but was acquitted. The party was captured on a videotape that was played for the jury.

Several influential people, including former President Jimmy Carter, stepped forward to support Wilson.

I tend to agree with the judge on this one. I don't think sex between two teenagers should result in punishing one with the lable of sex offender or with jail time.

Mom in teen sex case defends convict
1 hour, 50 minutes ago

ATLANTA - The mother of a then-15-year-old girl in a highly publicized teen sex case told a newspaper that the boy involved should not have been criminally charged, but she changed her statement a day later after a visit from prosecutors, the newspaper said Thursday.

Lawyer B.J. Bernstein, who represents the young man, Genarlow Wilson, called the prosecution's visit "pure intimidation." She said the mother's interview had made clear that the New Year's Eve party encounter between Wilson, then 17, and the 15-year-old girl "was definitely a consensual act."

Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation and — based on a law that has since been changed — was sentenced to a mandatory 10 years in prison. That sentence drew widespread criticism as grossly disproportionate to the crime, and a judge on Monday, calling it a "grave miscarriage of justice," ordered Wilson released. But Wilson, now 21, is still behind bars because the state attorney general is appealing the decision.

In an interview Tuesday, the girl's mother told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her daughter had told her the videotaped sex acts were consensual. The mother also said she regretted that she didn't ask prosecutors not to charge Wilson and four other boys at the party.

"She did not want any of this to happen," the mother said. "I felt like Douglas County was trying to make an example out of these boys."

The day after that interview, the mother spoke to the Journal-Constitution again, saying she was worried that she might be misquoted. She said Douglas County Assistant District Attorney Eddie Barker was at her home with an audio recorder to discuss what she had said.

Douglas County District Attorney David McDade later disclosed that his office had taped the woman's second conversation, the newspaper reported. "We were actually at her home when you were talking to her (Wednesday) morning," McDade said, according to the paper. "We were recording the conversation and so we have a tape of her telling you that you were twisting her words."

Bernstein said Thursday, "It was something that almost reminds us of what happens in a Communist country, that when you speak out about something to the media, you get a visit from the government."

Messages left Thursday with McDade's office seeking further comment were not immediately returned. Barker, the assistant district attorney, told the paper: "Never once did she ever ask us not to prosecute this case."

In the initial interview on Tuesday, the mother told the newspaper that before Wilson's trial, Barker had told her that if she didn't assist the prosecution, she could face legal trouble for "neglect" as a parent. Barker denied that assertion, the newspaper said.

On Wednesday, the mother said that Barker had not been "threatening" her but rather giving her advice.

The AP is not naming the mother to protect the identity of the girl, who is considered a sex crime victim.

The girl, now 18, declined a request for an interview. The mother said the young woman had since joined the military to pursue a career in nursing. "She is trying to put it all behind her," the mother said. "She does not want to come back to Douglasville because it is still a touchy subject. She still deals with it every day."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070614/...JXfnymMtWs0NUE

Judge denies bond for Georgia man pending appeal in teen sex case
ATLANTA (CNN) -- A Douglas County Superior Court judge Wednesday denied bond for Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia man serving a 10-year prison sentence for a consensual sexual encounter he had as a teenager, an aide to the judge told CNN.

Wilson, 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17, during a 2003 New Year's Eve party in Douglas County, just west of Atlanta.

Acting on a habeus corpus petition filed by his attorneys, Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson ruled earlier this month that Genarlow Wilson's punishment was cruel and unusual and voided it on constitutional grounds. The judge reduced the sentence to one year and said Wilson should not be put on Georgia's sex offender registry, as the old law required.

Wilson's jubilant attorneys hoped the ruling would free him from state prison. But shortly after it was handed down, Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker announced he would appeal the decision, a move that kept Wilson behind bars. (Posted 12:20 p.m.)


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe...day/index.html

That definatly seems extreme. While i think 15 is WAY too young to be having sex he was only 2 yrs older and under 18. It was "consensual" (although she many have agreed while under the influence). Not even intercourse.

so now if he has to register as a sexual offender it makes it hard to distinguish b/n a neighbor who is a problem and those that aren't. I would not have an issues w/ him as a neighbor per say then some one that was an adult that was innapropriate w/ a child.