The Georgia Supreme Court corrected a huge injustice, although 2 years to late, and
has ordered Genarlow Wilson freed from jail. This case was disgusting and ridiculous. I hope it has drawn enough attention to get Mr. Wilson a second chance at college.
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People seem to forget the Genarlow Wilson case involved six males and two girls. One of the two girls, a 17-year-old, claimed she was raped. The evidence included an amateur videotape showing Wilson engaging in sex with the 17-year-old and then being offered and receiving consensual oral sex from the 15-year-old girl. According to press reports, the 17-year-old looks sleepy or intoxicated in the video, but never asks Wilson to stop. Waking up naked and disoriented the next morning, the 17-year-old claimed to have been raped.
Five of the six males charged with raping the 17-year-old admitted their guilt, accepted plea bargains and never went to court. Wilson was the only one who decided to take his chances in court. A jury acquitted Wilson of raping the older girl, but convicted him of aggravated child molestation against the 15-year-old. They had no other choice, since the 15-year-old girl was under the age of consent.
The parents of the 17-year-old probably view Wilson's acquital on the rape charge as an injustice, but he was acquitted. Therefore, the 10-year sentence for consensual oral sex does seem overly harsh. However, a 17-year-old in Nebraska recently received a similar sentence on child pronography charges for videotaping himself engaged in sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend, who was over the age of sexual consent. The police seized the videotape in the Wilson case, so at least it's not being distributed around the schoolyard, showing up on U-Tube or on pronographic websites.
The quirkly thing about the court ruling that freed Wilson is that other teenagers, including white ones, remain in Georgia prisons for engaging in consenual oral sex with underage girls. For them, changes to Georgia's consensual sex laews are not retroactive. Only Wilson gets a get out of jail free card.
Wilson is scheduled to go on CNN to tell about his quest for justice. Wonder if they will show the video? Making videotape of 15-year-old girls engaged in sex violates child pornography laws, but these laws, it seems, are based on outdated moral values. CNN could just edit out the raped 17-year-old, but would probably have to get permission from the 15-year-old parents. This shouldn't be a problem. What modern-thinking parents would object to a group of males getting their 15-year-old daughter drunk and videotaping her performing oral sex? Isn't this normal teenage behaviour?
So, he should be in jail for ten years because he raped nobody? I don't quite grasp that. If the act in question is on video and they decide they can't prosecute for rape, I would reason that chances are it wasn't a rape. As for how the parents feel, that isn't what decides who goes to jail. If every parent who was unhappy with their daughters sex life could send teenage boys to jail, we would be in trouble. Whether what they were doing is offensive to someone's moral values or not is irrelevant, the question is; was it criminal? Is a 17 year-old having oral sex with a fifteen year old criminal? Especially when if he had just had sex with her it would have been a misdemeanor. Why did the legal system decide to but it to him? Those seem to be the questions.
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