Justice FINALLY for Genarlow Wilson

After spending more than two years behind bars, Genarlow Wilson is tonight a free man.

The New York Times reports:

The Georgia Supreme Court today ended the 10-year prison sentence of a man who was convicted in 2003 of having consensual oral sex with another teenager. The court said the harsh sentence violated the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

In a 4-to-3 ruling, the court’s majority said the sentence was “grossly disproportionate” to the crime, which the justices said “did not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children.”

The inmate, Genarlow Wilson, who is now 21, was 17 when he was caught on videotape having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a drug- and alcohol-fueled New Year’s Eve party in 2003. He was released this afternoon.

This law was deemed so harsh that Georgia legislators changed it a year after Wilson was sentenced. Unfortunately for Genarlow they did not make it retroactive to include him. So this honors student and star athlete has had years stolen from him, that he will never get back.

Writing for the majority in Friday’s 48-page opinion, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears noted that changes to the law made after Mr. Wilson’s conviction “represent a seismic shift in the legislature’s view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants.

“The severe felony punishment and sex offender registration imposed on Wilson make no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment,” she wrote. [...]

Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker, in a written statement, indicated that he would not challenge the high court’s decision.

“I respectfully acknowledge the court’s authority to grant the relief that they have crafted in this case,” Mr. Baker said. “I hope the court’s decision will also put an end to this issue as a matter of contention in the hearts and minds of concerned Georgians and others across the county who have taken such a strong interest in this case.”

John Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Georgia, called the case “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Georgia in modern times.”

Earlier in the year it looked as though Wilson might be allowed to leave prison, but the AG appealed a lower court decision.

Tonight, Genarlow Wilson's nightmare is finally over. With the full recognition that this is much easier for me to say than it might be for Genarlow to do ... Let's hope this young man can move on with his life, and not allow what was once a promising future to be lost to him forever.

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PREVIOUS POSTS:

Genarlow Wilson: perverted justice

Genarlow Wilson caught in a web of injustice

Genarlow Wilson interview on Today Show

'McMissile' leads to major injustice

Imagine you are sitting in a hot car in July, driving on a major interstate highway, you have three squirming kids in the back seat, a sister in the front who is six months pregnant and having early contractions, some wacky driver keeps weaving in and out of your lane as traffic slows down and then creeps almost to a halt. Do you think you might be tempted to want to throw something?

Jessica Hall, 25, of Jacksonville, N.C., was -- and now she is a convicted felon facing two years in prison.

Hall, clearly stressed, decided to veer onto the shoulder of the road and speed up next to the car that had been cutting her off in traffic. And then wham! She tossed a large McDonald's cup filled with ice into the other car. To the locals, it's the "McMissile" case.

No one was injured, but the cup launcher, Jessica Hall, [who] was charged and convicted by a Stafford County jury of maliciously throwing a missile into an occupied vehicle, a felony in Virginia. The instructions given to the jury said that "any physical object can be considered a missile. A missile can be propelled by any force, including throwing."

Hall, a mother of three young children whose husband is serving his third tour in Iraq, has spent more than a month in jail.

The jury sentenced her to two years in prison, the minimum, and a judge will formally impose a sentence Wednesday. Under state law, the judge can only
decrease the jury's sentence.

Even the couple who filed charges think the sentence was wrong.

"I think that this is way too much of a punishment for her actions. This is just to me absolutely ridiculous," Fowle said.

According to court documents Hall is unemployed and with her husband's salary, the couple takes in $30,384 a year. She receives $388 a month in food stamps. (Keep in mind he is on his third tour of duty in Iraq!)

What is going to happen to their three children? What fate is in store for this family? Hall was supposed to start nursing school the day after she was sent to jail. Anyone want to guess what her chances will be to find employment now?

Yes, she made a mistake ... yes, she knows she made a mistake ... but this is simply ridiculous.

"Now people are going to see me as an angry, road rage, convicted felon. And it really upsets me," Hall said. "I must have been wrong . . . but seriously, God. Lesson learned. Lesson learned is one hour in this place."

For more on this, check out Howling Latina.