Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Genarlow Wilson

It appears there has been some movement in the case. More than some, really; A judge threw out the ten year sentence.

For those of you who haven't been following this saga I will give you a brief rundown. Genarlow was Wilson was a football and academic star in Douglas County, Georgia. One night, when he was seventeen, him and his friends got drunk and he had oral sex with a fifteen year-old. For this he was sentenced to ten years in prison. One of the craziest parts of this case is that, if he had just had sex with her , it would have only been a misdemeanor. Why the Attorney General continues to support his sentence is beyond me. I don't think I am going out on a limb in saying that racism must play a huge part in this, even though the Attorney General is black. I don't even want to speculate on the number of seniors on my high school's football team who had sex with sophomores.

Genralow Wilson probably used bad judgment and was irresponsible, but guess what, he was seventeen! I use bad judgment all the time and I am thirty. All the prosecutors in this case are displaying even worse judgment. Now Genralow Wilson is twenty-one and he is still in prison. I doubt all of those Ivy League scholarships will come back. Fortunately some important people, like Mark Cuban and Jimmy Carter, have taken an interest so, hopefully, he will get another chance.

I haven't been making hip-hop records lately but I was going to make a track that just said over and over again, "Get Genarlow Wilson the fuck out of jail." Why this case hasn't sparked more of the same sentiment, I don't know. It is almost enough to make me want to go back to law school.

1 comment:

Jennifer B said...

This case has of course been big news here in Atlanta. And it has to be one of the most ridiculous things ever. Honestly, who locks someone up for 10 years for doing something teenagers across the land have and are doing. Talk about cruel and unusual. And the frickin' AG just needs to stop with the appeals and let this kid go. It pisses me off...
Have you heard if the girl was ever punished?

attempting to silence the voices in my head.