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.
