Genarlow Wilson: Free at Last

ABC: A handout photo from the office of his attorney, shows 17-year-old Genarlow Wilson, now 21. Wilson has currently served more than two years of a ten-year prison sentence for having consensual oral sex when he was 17 with a 15-year-old girl in 2003. (Genarlow Wilson)
cnn.com: Court says teen sex conviction 'cruel and unusual' punishment

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The Supreme Court of Georgia ordered Friday that Genarlow Wilson be released from prison, ruling that his sentence for a teen sex conviction was cruel and unusual punishment.

ABCNews.com: Court: Free Teen Jailed for Consensual Sex
Georgia Supreme Court Found a 10-Year Sentence for Oral Sex With Fellow Teen 'Cruel'

Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the majority opinion that the changes in the law "represent a seismic shift in the legislature's view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants."

Sears wrote that the severe punishment makes "no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment" and that Wilson's crime did not rise to the "level of adults who prey on children."

Edited to add: Click on the label "Genarlow Wilson", below, to read all posts on this travesty of justice. This kid served two years for a blow job; Scooter Libby committed treason & he's sitting home free.

Too Hot to Blog

Yankees captain Derek Jeter meets C. Vivian Stringer, head coach of the Rutgers women's basketball team, before Friday night's game. (Julie Jacobson/AP)
I know I've used this a post title before, but really, 94 degrees in June? It's like living in a swamp.

Here are some updates on stories we've covered previously:

Anucha Browne Sanders has finally landed another job, as the senior Associate Athletic Director for marketing and senior women's administrator for the University at Buffalo (what in the old days we would have called SUNY Buffalo, I guess UB sounds trendier.)

A New York investor and ten other business leaders have offered to put up Genarlow Wilson's $1 million bond so that he can be free pending appeal. Even Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker's pastor thinks Genarlow Wilson should be released, but still he rots in jail. What a waste.

Rutgers women's basketball team and coach Vivian Stringer have been awarded the 2007 Irv Grossman Award of Merit by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Program at Columbia University, for their play as well as their dignity and grace under pressure during the Imus imbroglio. They've also been nominated for an ESPY. They were also honored by the Yankees at Yankee Stadium two weeks ago. Turns out Derek Jeter is a big supporter and wrote a letter to the team after l'affaire Imus.

Pokey Chatman settled her lawsuit against LSU.

Bombard Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker: Set Genarlow Wilson Free

Judge Thomas H. Wilson ruled today that Genarlow Wilson's sentence be set aside and he be released for his time served (27 months).

The judge's ruling Monday threw out Wilson's 10-year sentence and amended it to misdemeanor aggravated child molestation with a 12-month term, plus credit for time served, and he would not be required to register as a sex offender.

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

The Georgia Attorney General immediately announced that he would appeal the ruling. Thurbert Baker (that's him in the picture) is a Democrat, but he was originally appointed by Zell Miller, so he's no progressive. And this is just idiotic. Under current law, Genarlow Wilson could only get a maximum penalty of six months. He's served 27. What end does it serve for him to rot in jail? The appeal of this ruling is just idiotic. So let's protest, again. As my brother said in an email today, "Bombard these idiots until they get it right!" Here are the telephone and fax numbers of the AGs; below is a link to a contact form that lets you email Georgia governor Sonny Purdue and ask him to remove AG Baker.

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF GEORGIA
THURBERT E. BAKER
40 CAPITOL SQUARE, SW
ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30334
Phone: 404-656-3300
FAX: 404-657-8733

Thurbert E. Baker
Attorney General
Phone: 404-656-3300
FAX: 404-657-8733

Jeff L. Milsteen
Chief Deputy Attorney General
Phone: 404-656-3347
FAX: 404-657-8733

Mary Beth Westmoreland
Deputy Attorney General
Criminal Justice Division
Phone: 404-656-3349
FAX: 404-651-6459

Daryl A. Robinson
Counsel to the Attorney General
Phone: 404-651-6194
FAX: 404-651-7676

Russ Willard
Director of Communications
Phone: 404-463-7540
FAX: 404-651-7676

David S. McLaughlin
Special Prosecutions
Phone: 404-651-5805
FAX: 404-651-7676

Trey Ellis, Huffington Post: Save Genarlow Wilson, Remove Attorney General Thurbert Baker

Click here to sent [AG Baker] a message.

When the form asks what is your message choose "other" (the last category) and then type in the box below it "Genarlow Wilson."

Monroe County Judge Rules: Release Genarlow Wilson

It's being reported as breaking news by 11Alive.com (Atlanta), MSNBC and CNN; more later.

Paris Hilton Free; Genarlow Wilson STILL Rots in Jail

Never thought I'd mention Paris Hilton on this blog, but here goes. OK, tell me race and class don't matter anymore in America. Paris Hilton gets released after 3 days of a 45 day sentence; Genarlow Wilson gets a 10-year sentence for conduct that is now a misdemeanor punishable by six months, and he still rots in jail two years later.

DailyKos: Paris Hilton VS Genarlow Wilson

For those of you unfamiliar, here's a CNN report on Genarlow Wilson's case:



Even though the prosecutor in the CNN piece says he'd be in favor of releasing Wilson, the prosecutor's office opposed the latest appeal by his lawyers, which will be decided Monday.

WaPo: Court Hears Appeal in Teen Oral Sex Case

Genarlow Wilson Update

He's still in jail (over two years and counting), but

(1) Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has taken up his cause:

Personally, there is no chance I do business in the state of Georgia beyond the committment the Mavs have to play the Hawks until Genarlow is out of jail.

(2) Today the New York Times editorialized on his behalf: Georgia's Shame

Every day that young Genarlow Wilson remains in prison for consensual sexual activity is a further indictment against the prosecutors, lawmakers and judges of the Georgia legal system. Lawyers for Mr. Wilson have applied for a writ of habeas corpus to challenge his cruel and unusual 10-year sentence. The Superior Court should grant it.

When he was 17, Mr. Wilson received oral sex from a 15-year-old girl. For that, he has served over two years of a strict minimum decade-long prison term. He was convicted of aggravated child molestation, a charge intended for adult sexual predators. If Mr. Wilson had engaged in sexual intercourse with the same girl, it would have been a misdemeanor under an exemption for contact between minors. Oral sex was left out. Legislators have since corrected the unintended trap. If Mr. Wilson engaged in the same action today, it would be a misdemeanor.

The Board of Pardons and Paroles is legally prohibited from granting clemency for this offense. And the State Senate adjourned for the year without taking up a bill that would have allowed judges to review sentences in cases like Mr. Wilson’s.

The behavior of the district attorney, David McDade, requires particular scrutiny. He charged Mr. Wilson with raping a different girl at the same party, and a jury acquitted him in 2005. Mr. McDade has distributed a graphic videotape of the events in that case to legislators as part of a lobbying effort at the State Senate against Mr. Wilson’s release. And Mr. McDade went on television last month and said, referring to Mr. Wilson and others involved, “Six young men basically gang-raped a 17-year-old.”

At best, this is irresponsible considering that Mr. Wilson was acquitted of the charge. It demonstrates poor judgment not by a minor, but by an adult who should know better.

Racism Lives, USA, 2007

Shaquanda Cotton (from Free Shaquanda Cotton website)

Miami, Florida: Tennis player Serena Williams is racially abused by a white male spectator who tells her to "hit the ball into the net like any nigger would".

Paris, Texas: A 15-year-old black girl, Shaquanda Cotton, has been in jail for over a year of a seven year jail term for pushing a hall monitor at her high school in 2005. (The hall monitor was not injured; it was her first offense.) Three months earlier, the same judge sentenced a 14-year-old white girl convicted of arson for burning down her family's house to probation.

Georgia: The Georgia State Senate has dropped the bill that would have freed 19-year-old black man Genarlow Wilson, who will now rot in jail for another eight years for conduct that is now only a misdemeanor under Georgia law.

It's not just the South, either:

Cambridge, Massachusetts: Vaunted Harvard University has 41 varsity sports and not one black coach. This is not surprising given that the AD and his 13 senior administrators are also not black. The AD has hired coaches for 12 sports since he was hired in 2001; all his hires are white.

Sports News Updates

TOTALLY UNRELATED PHOTO: Jan Christensen's "Relative Value" on display at the MGM Gallery in Oslo. The painting featuring 16,311 dollars (12,400 euros) of banknotes glued to a canvas proved too tempting to thieves, who made off with it at the weekend.(AFP/Scapix/File)

Here are some updates on some wildly disparate sports stories we've followed here:

Jen Harris settled her case against Penn State and their lesbian-hating coach Rene the Weenie Portland. Terms were not disclosed, although Harris's lawyer said in a separate statement that Penn State would be taking steps to "further protect all students who have experienced discriminatory treatment". Read opinions on the settlement here, here, and here. As a veteran of many sexual harassment claims, I'm sure Penn State had dug up enough dirt on Harris that she didn't want to go to trial and be embarrassed. Even though Rene Portland probably knew none of it when she kicked Harris off the team for being a lesbian, courts have routinely allowed defendants to embarrass victims of sexual harassment in this situation. I hope the kid got a bucketload of money.

Ranger dancer Courtney Prince won a victory in her sexual harassment lawsuit against the New York Rangers. She will be given all paperwork generated by the Rangers in their internal investigation of her claims, and their investigation of five other claims, including the claim by Anucha Browne Sanders .

Liverpool's Welsh firebrand Craig Bellamy tells the truth about him teeing off against John Arne-Riise before their ChampionsLeague clash with Barcelona last week. Yup, he threatened his teammate with a golf club. Idiota.

Despite more and more national attention to his case, Genarlow Wilson still rots in jail in Georgia. The Georgia state senate has voted the bill that would allow his case to be reviewed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but they are on a two week recess.

Georgia State Senator Blocks Bill That Would Free Genarlow Wilson

For extra credit, readers, guess the race of GOP Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-District 1). He is the politician who blocked consideration of the bill which would free Genarlow Wilson and hundreds of others convicted of statutory rape and given mandatory 10-year sentences for consensual sex. Answer (& picture) below.

Karen Russell, HuffPo: GOP Rep. Blocks Bill To Free Genarlow Wilson

Yesterday GOP lawmaker Eric Johnson wrote an op-ed criticizing the bill after he originally supported the bill:

Usually, society complains about sentences that are perceived as too soft. Granted, this sentence was harsh. But it was MANDATORY under the law. Life comes with accountability for our decisions. Genarlow Wilson could have selected different friends to hang with. He could have joined millions of law-abiding teens all over the country enjoying New Years' Eve without alcohol, drugs and sex. He could have left the hotel when "the fun" started. He didn't. He made a choice. Now his life has changed forever. That is sad. I hope other young men and girls will learn from this tragedy and avoid his errors.

Johnson admits the sentence his harsh and tragic, yet he remains willing to throw this young man's life away. As Johnson himself says, "life comes with accountability for our decisions". I say we hold Johnson accountable for his decision to continue this injustice. The Georgia legislature and its flip-flopping leader Johnson must be held accountable for this tragedy. The bill should be placed back on the agenda and Georgians should have the chance to correct this gross miscarriage of justice.

NYTimes: Bill to Aid Georgian Convicted of Sex Crime Stalls in Assembly

ATLANTA, Feb. 19 — The second piece of legislation introduced with the intent of helping Genarlow Wilson, a former honor student and star athlete who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for having oral sex with a 15-year-old classmate, may be in trouble in the Georgia General Assembly.

Senator Emanuel D. Jones, a Democrat, sponsored the legislation, which would make it possible for judges to reconsider the cases of hundreds of young adults, including Mr. Wilson, who are serving long mandatory minimum sentences in prison for having consensual sex with teenage minors. Mr. Jones said the bill was mysteriously left off the agenda of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

And on Monday, the Senate’s leader, Eric Johnson, publicly denounced the bill and said that although Mr. Wilson, now 20, was serving a harsh sentence, he deserved no leniency.

Genarlow Wilson Online Petition



Question Answer: Georgia State Senate Leadership

Unsurprisingly, he's white.

Racist Injustice in Douglas County, Georgia

ESPN: If he had accepted the plea bargain, Wilson would've had to register as a sex offender and wouldn't have been permitted to live in the same house as his younger sister.
ESPN covers the Genarlow Wilson case. Look at the case they found to compare to his situation:

The position of Barker [the judge] and the district attorney, McDade, who refused to comment, is that Wilson is guilty under the law and there is no room for mercy, though the facts seem to say they simply chose not to give it to Wilson. At the same time this trial was under way, a local high school teacher, a white female, was found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a student -- a true case of child molestation. The teacher received 90 days. Wilson received 3,650 days.

This is a disgrace.

Why Is Genarlow Wilson In Prison?

I saw this post on Seeing the Forest:

Ten Years In Prison For Oral Sex

The Georgia Supreme Court just upheld a sentence of Ten Years in Prison for 17-Year-Old Who Had Consensual Oral Sex with 15-Year-Old -- even though Georgia later changed the law to a misdemeanor. That's ten years with no possibility of parole, by the way.

And I thought, the kid is black. He's not white. No way would a white kid get 10 years for that. The judge (probably white) would look at the kid and see himself. Mandatory sentence? Throw out the verdict. Black kid, throw the book at him. So I googled his image. Oh yeah, he's black. Surprise, surprise.



The website where I found the picture asks: Why Is Genarlow Wilson In Prison?? And I say, it's out and out racism. I watched this happen all the time in my rare forays into the criminal justice system. Black kids always got harsher sentences than white kids. Sexism prevailed, too. White male judges hectored women seeking restraining orders. We've got a long way to go before justice is color and sex blind.