ATLANTA - A Georgia judge ordered the release Monday of a man sentenced to 10 years in prison for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17, a sentence that had been widely criticized as grossly disproportionate to the crime.
Several influential people, including former President Jimmy Carter, publicly supported Genarlow Wilson’s appeals, and state lawmakers voted to close the loophole that led to his 10-year term.
Monday’s ruling doesn’t ensure Wilson’s freedom, though.
Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said Monday afternoon that he had filed notice of appeal, arguing that Georgia law does not give a judge authority to reduce or modify the sentence imposed by the trial court. He said he would seek an expedited ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court.
Wilson defense lawyer B.J. Bernstein said she believes Baker is just trying to stop Wilson’s immediate release.
“It is extremely, extremely disturbing that the attorney general would take this action now,” she said. “In essence, the attorney general is saying, ’Keep Genarlow Wilson in prison for 10 years and keep him on the sex offender registry.”’
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, no relation to Genarlow Wilson.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19171577/
This should have never have happened in the first place.
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1 comment:
this is crazy. Glad they let him out. 15 and 17 is not wrong...its two years and they are both not leagal adults.....they are too hard on people for stupid things.
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