Here's a story about injustice

[Shawn]

There is a cardboard box in Genarlow Wilson's old bedroom.

It rests on the floor of his empty closet, near the deflated football and basketball. It's filled with things he needed in his old life. Mostly, it's overflowing with recruiting letters, from schools big and small. A "Good luck on the SAT" postcard from the coaches at Columbia. From another Ivy League college, Brown, a note from the football coach: "You have been recommended to me as one of the top scholar-athletes in your area."

There's a questionnaire from the Citadel. A brochure from Elon. An envelope from Sewanee. College after college, all wanting the undersized but overachieving Genarlow Wilson to consider their football programs. One open letter, dated three months before everything in this box became a reminder of a life derailed, invites him to take a campus visit. It begins:

Dear Genarlow,

Here you stand, on the threshold of four of the most influential, challenging, and rewarding years of your life.

He's 20 now. Just two years into a 10-year sentence without possibility of parole, he peers through the thick glass and bars, trying to catch a glimpse of freedom. Outside, guard towers and rolls of coiled barbed wire remind him of who he is.

Once, he was the homecoming king at Douglas County High. Now he's Georgia inmate No. 1187055, convicted of aggravated child molestation.

When he was a senior in high school, he received oral sex from a 10th grader. He was 17. She was 15. Everyone, including the girl and the prosecution, agreed she initiated the act. But because of an archaic Georgia law, it was a misdemeanor for teenagers less than three years apart to have sexual intercourse, but a felony for the same kids to have oral sex.

Afterward, the state legislature changed the law to include an oral sex clause, but that doesn't help Wilson. In yet another baffling twist, the law was written to not apply to cases retroactively, though another legislative solution might be in the works. The case has drawn national condemnation, from the "Free Genarlow Wilson Now" editorial in The New York Times to a feature on Mark Cuban's HDNet.

ESPN of all places

[rainbowdemon]

All that over a knob job?

It just isn't right!!

:censored:

[Shawn]

All that over a knob job?

It just isn't right!!

:censored:

Yeah, a knob job from a girl only two years younger than him. Now he's a child-predator for life.

You might have heard me bitch in the past about Canada's age of consent being 14. The current gov't is trying to amend that to be 16, but they have specifically included clauses to disregard mandatory charges within a certain number of years of difference. 5 years. So a 19 year old can still sleep with a 14 year old without facing charges.

He wouldn't even have been charged here even under the new harsher statute.

[DudeAsInCool]

I read that. The legislators who wrote that law should all go to jail

[method77]

I am pretty sure that he will get out of jail now that it's a big story but who will pay for the 2 lost years?

[DudeAsInCool]

I wonder how they found out about it in the first place--and how they could prove it

[Hemoglobin Harry]

When the happy camper woke up in only her socks the next day she called her mother and told her she was raped. She retracted at or before trial.

The datails came out because there was a camcorder at the party seized when the cops got therre and were still under the impression the girl had been savagely raped.

[DudeAsInCool]

When the happy camper woke up in only her socks the next day she called her mother and told her she was raped. She retracted at or before trial.

The datails came out because there was a camcorder at the party seized when the cops got therre and were still under the impression the girl had been savagely raped.

So everyone jumped to conclusions

[Warflower]

MISTRIAL!

Indeed, when the jurors found out there was a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, several were incensed.

What the hell is this? The jurors DIDN'T know about the 10 year? No one asked? No one looked it up? What the hell is this!!!

The prosecution told them to write a letter, then moved on to the next case.

This makes me FURIOUS.

[DudeAsInCool]

MISTRIAL!

Indeed, when the jurors found out there was a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence, several were incensed.

What the hell is this? The jurors DIDN'T know about the 10 year? No one asked? No one looked it up? What the hell is this!!!

The prosecution told them to write a letter, then moved on to the next case.

This makes me FURIOUS.

the judge should have stepped in at that point

[GabrielYoungFan]

the judge should have stepped in at that point

Yeah I think the Judge is supposed to define charges and the possible sentences at a jury trial here in ga.