News / People
Teen sex case: 10 year sentence voided
On Monday a judge voided a 10-year sentence given to 21-year-old Genarlow Wilson. Wilson was sentenced to 10 years in prison when he was 17 for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl.
After the judge threw out the sentence the state attorney filed an appeal; keeping Wilson in jail for now. Wilson gained support throughout Monroe County Georgia including former president Jimmy Carter and the editorial board of the New York Times.
State Legislators changed the law that put Wilson in jail due partly to his case but left Wilson in jail because it was not made "retroactive." At the time Wilson was caught, Georgia law stated his actions were a felony; punishable by 10 years in prison and the offender listed on the sex offender registry.
Judge Thomas H. Wilson ruled Wilson would serve one year in prison and he would not be registered as a sex offender. Wilson has served two years already. The judge agreed with Wilson’s attorney, B.J. Bernstein, that the sentence was "cruel and unusual, and therefore unconstitutional."
"I just feel like a miracle has happened," Juannessa Bennett, Wilson’s mother, said. "He did not deserve to have the sexual predator status."
"This has been a really long 28 months," Bernstein said. "It's a very long fight. And right now we have an order of release. And I beg the attorney general of the state of Georgia: please, enough. Do not file an appeal, please. Because we have an order of release right now for a young man that I think most everybody in the community believes should not be in prison."
