Privacy Maven

It took two years – two years that Genarlow Wilson spent in prison, two years of a 10 year sentence for having consensual sex with a 15 year old when he was 17, before authorities – in this case, the Georgia Supreme Court – finally regained their senses and set him free:

The Georgia Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of Genarlow Wilson, the Douglas County teenager who has been serving a controversial 10-year sentence for consensual oral sex.

The court’s 4-3 decision upholds a Monroe County judge’s ruling that the sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment under both the Georgia and U.S. constitutions.

The majority opinion said the sentence appeared to be “grossly disproportionate” to the teenager’s crime and noted that it was out of step with current law.

Wilson was convicted in April 2005 of aggravated child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a 2003 New Year’s Eve party in a hotel room. He was 17 at the time.

At the time the crime carried a mandatory 10-year sentence with no parole. However, the law was changed in 2006 to make Wilson’s crime a misdemeanor with a maximum 1-year sentence.

“Although society has a significant interest in protecting children from premature sexual activity, we must acknowledge that Wilson’s crime does not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children …” wrote Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears in the majority opinion.

She said that “for the law to punish Wilson as it would an adult, with the extraordinarily harsh punishment of 10 years in prison without the possibility of probation or parole, appears to be grossly disporportionate to his crime.”

Justice George Carley, in the dissent, said the 2006 change in the law was specifically written so it would not be retroactive. The sentence is not cruel and unusual because “the General Assembly made the express decision that he cannot benefit from the subsequent legislative determination to reduce the sentence for commission of that crime from felony to misdemeanor status,” Carley wrote.

Carley said the majority opinion showed “unprecedented disregard” for the legislative intent of the law change and creates the potential for releases of “any and all defendents who were ever convicted of aggravated child molestation and sentenced” under circumstances similar to Wilson’s.

The majority opinion acknowledged that the state’s high court rarely overturns sentences on grounds that they are cruel and unusual, but notes that it has done so twice before following legislative changes. It also said a review of other states showed that most “either would not punish Wilson’s conduct at all or would, like Georgia now, punish it as a misdemeanor.”

You can read the Georgia Supreme Court’s press release regarding their decision (pdf file) or read the full text of the court’s decision (pdf file). For background information on this case, Privacy Maven recommends this excellent article by Wright Thompson of ESPN.com and the article on Wilson v. State of Georgia on Wikipedia. Throughout the case, ESPN’s reporting has been notable. Wilson was, at the time of his arrest, a high school football star as well as an honors student with a 3.2 GPA, who intended to further both academic studies and football in college. Here are two video reports from ESPN on Genarlow Wilson.