http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opin ... ilson.html This really is a travesty. This is not even illegal today, and yet Mr. Wilson languishes in prison.
I can't believe a prosecution was actually pushed on this. I also can't believe that some sort of plea bargain wasn't worked out either. It's not like this guy was a sexual predator. They were both high schoolers, and by all accounts both consented.
As I understand it, there is more to this story. Apparently plea deals were reached with several other offenders at this party. Deals that I recall did not have them registering as sex offenders, etc. I b elieve that he was offered a deal. Again, my recollection is that Mr. Wilson decided that, notwithstanding the video tape, he would take his chances with the full boat at trial. Go back and read some the papers' stories regarding the legislature's actions, etc. The legislators position was that he took his chances and lost - you can't now complain about the consequences. I don't believe that his sentence is necessarily just, but I do believe he was given a fair chance just like the others at the party.
After the Dixon case, the legislature changed the law to make a certain age range a misdemeanor and no sex offender registry. But they did not make it retroactive.
Oh, what, you didn't know? The girl was white. The reason the General Assembly changed that law was that prosecutions in Georgia of teenage boys for sex with teenage girls were pursued only when the boy was black and the girl was white. http://essentialpresence.blogspot.com/2 ... ilson.html
While I have no doubts about the racial slant, the fact that the girl was under-age cannot be dismissed out-of-hand. As a parent who had teenage girls, if I had found out about something like this, I would be pressing charges; if nothing else to try to salvage what remained of her reputation.
merlock, I am not in favor of teenagers who are unmarried engaging in sex of any kind, but you have to admit that there is something unjust about this kid (who was a teenager himself) spending ten years in prison on felony charges for allowing a 15 year old girl to perform oral sex on him at a party. And being registered as a "sex offender." While I have no doubt you would want to push charges - you should be aware that parents have not been pushing charges when the boy is white. It just is not happening. Parents are pressing charges only when they find out that the boy with whom their slutty child is copulating is black. Frankly, I am disgusted that what we have in the law is really a racially discriminative tool for parents of slutty white 15 year olds. Wilson has a court hearing today.
I agree, but with a caveat: Mr. Wilson did toss the dice with the justice system. so I cannot address the advice of his counsel to go to trial. Point taken; even though my daughters are now adults, I hope I would've been able to see clearly enough to go after the boy, regardless of his skin color. +1. That's just one of the problems here-the girl's parents did not teach her any morals, nor self-respect.
I have taken liberty to suggest and edit for completeness. If I knew how to that fancy strike through and font color business, I would have. As I'm sure my proposed edit belies, I am positively a Luddite in many ways.
True enough, but I am also not in favor of making it a felony. I do not necessarily think everything of which I disapprove or even find morally repugnant should also be a crime. I find foul language on forums morally repugnant, but I do not think the poster should go to jail.
From today's AJC story on Mr. Wilson's hearing: During the trial, McDade added, Wilson refused to accept a plea agreement in which he could have pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of child molestation and faced up to five years in prison with the possibility of parole, McDade said. That offer still stands today, McDade said. "They have lost in the courts and they are trying to — I guess, through misinformation — convince the public and the media that this is somehow an injustice," McDade said. "People who have watched the videotape will be left with a different impression." Wilson said this week that he didn't accept the plea deal because he fears being on the state's sex offender registry. "I don't feel like I'm a sexual predator or I am a pedophile in any type of way," said Wilson, a trim man with a pencil-thin mustache, close-cropped hair and an easy smile. 5 others at the party apparently accepted plea deals. I'm guessing with the circumstances, the 'up to 5 years' would probably have been about 2, with parole in perhaps one. Hmmmm? Mr. Wilson was largely correct in his assessment of his chances. The jury acquitted him post-haste of rape. The jury also did not want to convict him of the aggravated child molestation charge, but they followed the letter of the law. Now going to a jury of 12 moms and dads, hoping for jury nullification, on a charge for which there is a videotape of your plain guilt and no material factual dispute as to the young lady's age or any other element of the charge - that just wasn't all that bright. What did he expect? One might get jury nullification on an unjust charge of some sort of civil disobedience, assisted suicide of an elder, etc. But for drug and alcohol addled sex in a hotel room on videotape? Mr. Wilson, unfortunately for him, over-played his hand. Just like in poker, one cannot remove the bet from the table after the hand is lost.
What "misinformation?" Give us an example, government man. What "different impression?" The jury watched the tape, and they decided it was consensual. It is an injustice. I mean, do you really think your child is in danger from this fellow so that he needs to be on the sex offender registry. THAT is why he plead not guilty. The plea deal still results in a FELONY, and it still results in the sex offender registry. What kind of poker odds its that? I really do not get your analogy. Today, this is a misdemeanor. Ten years ago, it was not a crime at all. Mr. Genarlow is simply a victim of timing. That is all. And the General Assembly should have fixed this before adjourning for crossover day.